Faith to the Dark
by RainbowMonkeh
Summary: AU  Train is a Dragon, Lynelle is an Elf. The Elf's lands are under siege from humans, and they team up in order to stop them. However the humans aren't the only ones behind what's going on. Will they succeed in their goal? TrainxOC JenosxOC
1. Chapter 1

Back when the world was just starting there were two species that were part of the world. They were the children birthed from nature. Those species were the Dragons and the Elves. The dragons lived in the extreme environments, the volcanoes and the deserts and the carnivorous forests, and the elves lived in the easy going plains and valleys. Eventually the dragons and the elves met. The elves found out that the Dragons could change shape into elves, and the dragons found out that elves could use magic to manipulate plants how they were needed. Eventually a friendship was formed between the two races, and they lived in harmony with each other.

Over the course of centuries new species were popping up, like dwarves mining underground and into the mountains, and humans who were slowly encroaching on Elven Territory. The elves and the dragons held a meeting together. The Elves discussed how the humans were stealing their land, and the dragons spoke about how the humans were slaughtering them for their hides, talons and teeth. For a while they left the humans alone, but they moved away from the lands with humans in them, to find a better place to live. As the Elves and the dragons moved, the human population exploded and soon enough the Elves were calling another meeting to the dragons.

The second meeting the Elves decided that they no longer wished to just give the land to the humans. If the humans wanted the land, they were going to have to fight for it. The dragons agreed and then an alliance was formed. The dragons would teach the Elves how to fight and would allow the Elves to ride on their backs to help fight, and to protect the Elves from harm against the human spears. From then on only carefully selected Elven children became Dragon Riders. The humans quickly shrank back and admitted defeat, and the Elves took their land back, and the Dragons were no longer killed. Because of the atrocities that the Dragon Riders committed while saving their races, the Dragon Riders left and flew away, leaving the lands in peace. A few hundred years passed, a fleeting moment for the Elves and the Dragons alike, but the humans saw it as several life times, and decided, in secret, that they were going to take the land of the Elves, and once more slaughter the dragons.

As a result the Dragon Riders were once more born.

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><p>The day was young as she stood in line and waited for the inspectors. She was ten years old; by human time telling, but as an Elf she was much more mature than that. The way it was figured, she acted more like a human 20 year old. In Elven years she was 24.<p>

Instead of dwelling on the humans, she looked down the line at her best friend, Wiley, and grinned. Wiley smiled back and rolled her eyes slightly. Both of them had been picked to be inspected to see if they were dragon riding material. Wiley was indifferent about it, on the outside, but she knew that on the inside, Wiley's heart was pumping twice as fast as it normally would, and she couldn't wait too much longer before it started to show on the outside.

As if that was what the inspectors were waiting for, the doors at the far end of the hall opened and five old elves walked through the door. They were all hooded, and long silver hair spilled out of the hoods that hid their faces. It was time to make a good impression. Before the elves pushed back their hoods to reveal their faces, she pulled herself up and stood ram-rod straight. Her shoulders were square and her eyes bright.

The inspectors walked over to the first Elf child and removed their hoods. They all had to stare into the child's eyes to see their inner workings. There were many small things that could turn the inspectors away from you. If you tried to hide something, they wouldn't accept you, and if you had any stains on your mind they would refuse you. Those were only some of the things that kept you from becoming a dragon rider.

Slowly time dragged on and children were eliminated. The inspectors came to Wiley and stared into her eyes for longer than they had anyone else. Usually that was a good sign, but sometimes it could also be a bad sign. During her childhood Wiley had lived in another village, and that village had come under attack by humans. Her parents had been killed and no one else from her village had made it out alive. It was a scar on Wiley's heart.

After what seemed like an eternity the inspectors moved away from Wiley and pulled her from the line. Wiley was going to be a Dragon Rider. One of the inspectors stayed with Wiley while the other four moved from child to child looking to fill the quota.

Soon enough it was her turn. The inspectors looked into her eyes and she felt the connection instantly. They were searching through her soul, looking for any taints or prejudices that would keep her from being a Dragon Rider. As they searched through her, the only thing on her mind was happiness for Wiley, and a great hope that she would join her friend among the Dragon Riders.

"Lynelle, you and Wiley are the newest Dragon Riders. Congratulations." The inspectors broke their connection with Lynelle and moved her from the line. Lynelle scanned the eyes of the rest of the children and saw that in a few there were looks of anger and hatred toward her and Wiley. Those people would never have made it to be a Dragon Rider, if by some miracle they did, they would taint the dragon and cause irreparable harm in the trust between Dragons and Elves.

The other children were dismissed. Wiley and Lynelle waited in the hall with the five inspectors. Once the children were cleared and the doors were closed the five elves looked to Lynelle and Wiley.

"The hardest part is not over. There is still much that you must do, and so much that you will learn. At times it will seem impossible, but it will do nothing but make you stronger. You will be hurt, you might be captured and tortured, knowing what you know, do you both still wish to become Dragon Riders?"

There was no hesitation in their serious nods, and the fierce determination in their eyes never faltered. The Elves smiled at the two newest recruits and led them from the hall. Slowly they made their way through the compound and found themselves in a large dormant volcano crater. Sitting on the far crater rim standing with two dragons on either side of them, were two teenage boys. Neither one of them looked completely thrilled to be there, but they were both dealing with it.

The one directly across from Lynelle was taller than her, but only by a few inches. His hair was spiky and brown. He was dressed in blue and his nails were black. Dragons were gifted with orichalcum claws. It never broke or chipped and could tear through nearly anything. The only thing that stopped it was more orichalcum. Underneath his head of messy hair were piercing, golden eyes that saw everything. No doubt that was her dragon.

Wiley was looking at the teenage boy across from her. He was easily a foot taller than her, with forest green hair and bark brown eyes. His nails were also black, but he looked more interested than the other dragon did. He was watching her every move with interest, it was like she was the most interesting person that he'd ever seen. It made her wonder what he was thinking. Once she was close enough to him, she found herself wrapped in iron hard arms of nothing but dragon muscle. Wiley blinked a few times, wondering just what happened.

"Aren't you the most beautiful elf that I have ever seen! You are a pristine woman!" Wiley growled at him, and used her own strength to flip him over onto his back. Her face was bright red and she was glaring at the dragon that she had just flipped onto his back.

"Don't touch me," Wiley advised before straightening and bowing to the older dragon that her dragon had been standing next to. "Forgive me," she added.

_Child, I have seen him act like that so many times, had you not harmed him, I would have been concerned. _The dragon's laughter rumbled like thunder across the land. Wiley bowed again and returned her attention back to her dragon.

Lynelle walked up to her dragon and looked him over quickly before bowing respectfully. The dragon bowed back and looked her over. Lynelle had expected that and let him. Thankfully he didn't hug her and grope her like Wiley's dragon had.

"I am Lynelle, I look forward to becoming a team with you," Lynelle said with a sincere smile.

"You don't look like much. I think you would make me weaker instead of stronger. I'm not sure that I want you riding on my back." Lynelle felt her cheeks heat in rage. How dare he! She might not have had strong magic, but she was certainly a formidable foe when she chose to be.

"I'd be careful if I were you," Wiley warned the dragon. "She may not seem strong, but her magic is so immense that it lies dormant until it's needed. Once it has deemed that it is needed, her magic bursts forth without warning and can do serious damage before you realize what has happened." Wiley was glaring at Jenos who was inching toward her.

"I find that incredibly hard to believe. She doesn't even look like she can make a candle light from across the room. She probably wouldn't make a good cook either." Lynelle felt her magic surge forward then. Instead of lighting him on fire, the young dragon was encased in ice as the temperature around him dropped by ten degrees a second. Wiley sighed and shook her head, she had warned him. He was as stubborn as Lynelle was.

Lynelle stormed past the frozen dragon and leaned against the wall of the crater. She crossed her arms over her chest and huffed in anger.

"I guess I forgot to mention that it also comes out when she's angry," Wiley chimed with a sly smile and waved at the dragon that was slowly melting himself out of the ice block.

The two older dragons were rumbling with amusements, and the five inspectors were shaking their heads. They had picked the girls because they thought that they would be compatible with the young dragons. Apparently they had been wrong. Even they were not exempt from making mistakes

"You four are to learn to get along, as you will make up a team. Not to mention you have to get along with your partner. If you don't work together, then life is going to be hell for all four of you. Training starts tomorrow at dawn. Don't be late. Lynelle, will you thaw Train?" Lynelle huffed and let her magic flow out of her body. She melted the ice around Train and then stalked off back to the hall. Wiley hissed as Jenos before following her friend out of the crater.

_You two are the most annoying younglings I have ever had the horror of meeting. Behave yourselves while you are with the elves._ With the last parting word the two dragons took to the sky and left. The two young dragons watched and then followed the inspectors to their rooms.

"Jenos this is going to be a long, long training period…" Train muttered. Jenos nodded his head in agreement.

* * *

><p>Disclaimer: I don't own Black Cat or Lynelle. Lynelle is © to BlackCatTrain. Wiley is © to Me.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

"Lynelle," Wiley called as she caught up to her friend. Wiley set a hand down on Lynelle's shoulder and stopped the girl from storming off. Wiley smiled at her and put her arm around her shoulder. "Don't worry about Train he'll come around. Even if I have to alter the way his brain works. Besides, I'm sure that he knows if he pushes you too far you'll just turn him inside out. Now let's go find something to do." Lynelle looked at Wiley. Wiley had always been interesting to look at. Her eyes were metallic orange and they shone in the night. Her hair was down to her waist and normally was tied back in a pony tail at the base of her head. It was long and brown and shone brilliantly in the sunlight.

"Sounds like a good idea," Lynelle agreed. As they walked past the fountain, Lynelle looked down into the water. Her hair was brown and to her mid-back. No matter what she did to it, it always looked unkempt. It waved out behind her when she walked. There was one thing that she really liked about her looks. Her eyes, they were her most distinguishing feature. They were blue, but her pupil was ringed with gold. Within the blue there were purple flecks that caught the sunlight and made her eyes sparkle. "What are we supposed to do now that we're Dragon Riders?" Lynelle asked. Wiley tilted her head up slightly and thought about it.

"Technically until we begin our training we're not Dragon Riders. However, I think that it would be best if we acted like Dragon Riders. We want to make sure that the inspectors know that they picked the right people for this job. I think that we need to work on controlling that magic of yours as much as possible before you see Train next. What do you say?" Wiley asked. Lynelle knew that Wiley was right. She had tried so many times before to control her magic when she was angry or upset, but it never worked well. It had always lashed out without her knowing about it, until it was too late. Freezing Train in a block of ice had just been the most recent outburst of her magic.

"Wiley, I've tried so many times before, and it's always ended the same. You've seen it happen, several times. I just don't think that it's possible."

"I agree with you," Wiley answered not a second later. Lynelle looked at her friend. She was confused. "That doesn't mean that we can't find a way to make it so that you realize you're close to the breaking point. If you know when your breaking point is, before it happens, you can cool your temper before you freeze someone again, or throw them high into the sky like the time before last. Besides, you haven't tried with me helping you. Remember what my specialty with magic is?" Wiley asked.

"Which one? You have two." Wiley smiled.

"Fine, what are my specialties?"

"For one you're very subtle with magic. The second one is suppression. You're going to try to suppress my magic in order to keep me from snapping!" Lynelle exclaimed when she realized what Wiley was planning. Wiley smiled and nodded her head; her metallic orange eyes were glowing slightly in the dim light. There were times when Lynelle thought that Wiley wasn't completely Elf, but she never believed it. "How?"

"Quite simple, really. First I'm going to craft you a ring. As I'm crafting the ring I'm going to weave three spells into it. The first one is going to be a spell that will keep the reserve magic from coming out unless you call it. I can't guarantee how well it's going to work, but we will see where it gets us. The second spell will be a warning. The ring will grow unbearably hot against your finger when you are near the breaking point of the first spell. When you grow immune to the heat, the ring will change how it alerts you. It will become freezing cold, so much that it will burn your skin, after that the ring will shrink, and if you reach that point, I will have to add more onto that spell. If you didn't guess the third spell will be what upgrades the warnings." Lynelle looked at Wiley in amazement. She had no idea that her friend could do all that and store it in a single ring. Most spell weavers would need three rings for three different spells.

"How are the spells going to be powered?" Lynelle asked.

"Not by my magic, if that's what you're wondering. I'm going to make it so that the ring absorbs magic from you whenever you use it. That will be what powers the spell. However, until the spells are charged and the ring is filled with your magic, it will have to be my magic that I store within the ring that powers it. I know it is not ideal, but that's where my second specialty comes in doesn't it? Do you trust me enough to allow me to do this?" Wiley asked. Lynelle knew that Wiley acted much older than her years, much older than Lynelle. It was as if Wiley had seen the world several times over and knew all that there was to know. It was strange, but she liked it.

"Of course I trust you, Wiley. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't trust you to help me when I needed it?" Wiley smiled at Lynelle and nodded her head. Wiley changed directions suddenly and dragged Lynelle with her. Lynelle felt her arm being pulled nearly out of its socket. Wiley obviously really wanted her to follow. Lynelle complied easily and looked at Wiley curiously.

"Train and Jenos were coming toward us. I masked our presence and led us away. You are not ready to see Train, nor am I ready to be groped again by Jenos. It seems that we both have things to work on, doesn't it?" Wiley asked with a laugh. Lynelle rolled her eyes and caught up with Wiley after jogging for a few steps. Wiley led Lynelle through the winding streets to her house.

There had never been a time when Lynelle hadn't been impressed by Wiley's house. When she was younger, after her parents had died, she had been given everything that her parents had owned. Wiley had then sold everything, which totaled up to a shockingly large amount and bought a new house. The house was two stories tall, which was taller than most houses. It spanned 100 feet in both directions from the middle of the house, and there was even a hot spring in the West wing of the house. Lynelle had her own room for when she wanted to stay over and Wiley let her do whatever she wanted to do.

"Feel free to do whatever," Wiley said when she pushed open the door before she touched it. It was a common occurrence with Wiley around. "I will be in my workshop, if you need anything you know where everything is, and you know where the money is if I don't have what you want." Without saying anything else, Wiley turned and walked off to her suite. Lynelle waited until the door closed to Wiley's suite and then headed to her own. Lynelle knew the route like the back of her hand, and felt right at home in the large halls. Most people would have thought that Wiley was stuck up and snobby by the way her house looked, but if you thought that you didn't know Wiley.

"What to do?" Lynelle asked as she opened the door and walked into her rooms. There was a receiving room, and then the actual bed chamber. Lynelle had furnished it the way she wanted it, there was a large oak desk on one side of the room for where she was to do her studies in school, and then there was a large feather down mattress on a mahogany canopy bed. There were other stools and what not all over the room, but there was one wall that was devoid of any furniture. The wall across from the canopy bed had a large tapestry hanging from it. It went from floor to ceiling and wall to wall. Wiley had given it to Lynelle as a present for her birthday one year. In the middle of the tapestry there was a large, black wolf with a smaller silver moon behind it. The wolf was howling at the moon, and in the distance you could make out smaller wolves. The smaller wolves were lying down, hiding in the shadow of their protector.

"I think I'm going to go for a walk," Lynelle said as she trailed a hand down the tapestry. It was her favorite thing that she owned. Wiley refused to let her take it home. It was to stay in her rooms, where it was meant to be. After staring into the tapestry for a few minutes, Lynelle left her rooms and walked out of the back door. The back yard was a massive garden that Wiley kept perfect with her magic. There were spells all over the place that you couldn't sense, that preserved the flowers from wilting and the frost when it came. Lynelle loved the garden, and sometimes amongst the flowers she had caught wolf prints here and there. That was no doubt also part of Wiley's doing. Wiley was like her older sister, even though Lynelle was the older of the two.

Lynelle walked the well worn paths through the garden until she found her secret spot. The spot wasn't really a secret; it was more like an enclosed area that made her feel safe. Most of the time when she came to the spot, she sat down between the three tree trunks and read a book, but today she had felt like admiring the scenery, for some reason she didn't think that it was appreciated enough.

Birds were singing in the distance, setting a happy, relaxing atmosphere. Small chipmunks and squirrels were playing in the trees above her head, raining leaves down on her. It brought a smile to Lynelle's lips to see the animals playing with each other and having a grand old time. In order to better listen to the nature and the peace all around her, Lynelle closed her eyes and just listened. She didn't need to see it; it was much better when she could picture it how she wanted as she listened to bird song and rattling branches. Distantly there was a small stream that ran through the center of the garden; she heard it humming softly as it rolled across the pebbles on the bottom. The sounds slowly lulled her into a deep sleep, a sleep that she hadn't been able to reach for a long time now.

In her workshop Wiley poured the spells into the small metal ring. She was sweating and she had a massive headache. Even though she knew that it was from using too much magic all at once, Wiley kept pouring the layers and layers of magic over the ring. After she had shaped the ring to fit Lynelle, and mold it to something that Lynelle would love, Wiley had begun weaving her spells. It had been at least an hour since she had started, and since then she had nearly depleted her resources of magic. Wiley wasn't a light weight when it came to magic, but Lynelle was the champion heavy weight, easily out classing Wiley. Her magic would need to be very effective in order to do what it was meant to do. That meant layers upon layers, folding magic where it needed to be folded so that it would store as much energy as it could without bursting apart.

Knowing that the end of her reserves was near, Wiley finished up her spells. They were the best she had ever crafted. Once the spells were sealed into the ring, Wiley poured what energy that she could into powering the ring.

Once she was finished Wiley's arms felt like lead weights, and her legs were huge boulders that refused to be moved. With nothing but will power, Wiley walked through her house, and found Lynelle sleeping in her spot. With a smirk and roll of her eyes, showing how common this was for Lynelle, Wiley bent down and shook her friend away.

"What? I wasn't sleeping," Lynelle muttered as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Wiley moved the ring in front of Lynelle's eyes and watched as her eyes focused on them. Lynelle looked at Wiley with a question in her eyes. "What is it?"

"It is the ring that is going to save Train's life," Wiley answered. "It's finished and I expect you to wear it every day," Wiley added as she dropped the ring into Lynelle's open hand. Lynelle picked up the ring by the band and looked at the front of the ring. It was a golden wolf, with sapphires for eyes. Lynelle's eyes widened as she looked from the ring to Wiley.

"You made this?" Lynelle asked. Wiley nodded her head and sat down on the ground. "It's amazing, thank you." Lynelle slipped the ring onto her right ring finger and looked at it. It was perfect. After a moment of staring at the ring in wonder, Lynelle looked away to thank Wiley once more, but found the other elf asleep on the grass. Lynelle laughed and let Wiley sleep. She knew that it had taken Wiley a lot of strength in order to make the ring actually work to hold back Lynelle's magic. "Thanks, Wiley. I'll make sure I wear it."

After a few more moments staring at ring Lynelle closed her eyes and listened, once more, to the sounds of the garden. The longer she listened, the closer she came to falling asleep.

Even as she fell asleep, she heard something odd in the distance. It was a new sound that didn't belong. Deciding it was just some younger kids messing around in town; Lynelle ignored it and allowed herself to drift off to sleep.

It was only after she had fallen into a deep sleep that Lynelle realized that it wasn't kids just fooling around in town. That was the sound of screaming. It was too late, Lynelle was already in a dead sleep.

Disclaimer: I don't own Black Cat or Lynelle. Lynelle is © to BlackCatTrain. Wiley is © to Me.


	3. Chapter 3

Train heard the noise in the distance and looked at Jenos. Jenos had his head tilted to the side in order to try to hear the sounds better. Normally they would have known instantly what was going on, but because of the walls, which they weren't used to, they couldn't hear it clear enough. There was one thing that helped them hint at what was going on. There was the smell of smoke and things burning.

As soon as the young dragons recognized the smell they were on their feet and running toward the fire. They had to see what was happening, and they had to find their riders. No doubt they were going to be needed. As soon as they opened the doors to the hall where they were staying the rancid air hit their noses and caused them to gag.

"We need to find our riders," Jenos yelled above the screams of terror and the crying of agony. "If we don't find them, we'll be useless!"

"You don't think that I know that?" Train hissed as a flame plume came from his mouth. He was angry; he had seen this exact same thing before, in his original home. A man named Creed had come from nowhere and told the dragons that he was sent there on a mission of peace. Believing, foolishly, that he was being honest, humans were never honest. Train had learned that the day his entire village had been slaughtered by the humans that Creed had lead through the caves. "This is the same tactic that Creed used on my home. They set fire to one part of the town to set the entire town ablaze, and then waiting for the fleeing terrorized townspeople are the rest of the horde. They're going to be slaughtered, and there's nothing that we can do about it." Train dodged as people rushed passed him, hoping to be free of the terror that was eating at an alarming pace, their town.

"Train, don't even think about trying to go after Creed. You won't be able to stand a chance against him right now. We need to find our riders and get out of here. We have to live to fight another day. If you don't listen to me, I will have no choice but to tie you up." Train knew that Jenos wasn't kidding. Jenos could produce very thin wires that had the strength of the rare substance in their claws. It would be impossible to get out of, alive at least. Train nodded that he understood and took a firm grip on his anger. "Come on, I think I feel Wiley." Jenos grabbed Train's arm in a firm grip and led him through the running crowds.

As Jenos led Train through the town, to where he thought that he felt Wiley, Train couldn't help but look for Creed. Train wanted to sink his razor sharp teeth into Creed's body and shake and shake until Creed shook apart and splattered the ground. The thought brought a cruel smile to Train's face. That bastard would get what he deserved.

"Do you have any idea where you're going?" Train growled as loud as he could manage. Jenos ignored the question and stopped at an intersection. He looked in all three directions and looked worried. Jenos had more of a connection with Wiley than Train did with Lynelle because of their physical contact; however that didn't mean that Jenos would be able to find Wiley. The connection was very weak, but after their training with each other, it would be strong. The link gradually formed, if it formed right away most of the time the dragon and rider became confused about who was who and it ended terribly. "You have no idea do you?"

"I will find her, damn it!" Jenos hissed. He turned right, heading in the direction of the flames. Train knew that they didn't have long before natural instincts overcame them and even they would flee from the blaze that was eating the town alive. It was rare that a dragon was able to completely suppress their natural instincts. Train and Jenos were much too young to even begin to think about it. Compared to the dragons that had brought them here they were still hatchlings. No dragon knew exactly how old they were, but those who would actually care to guess were normally millenniums old. "There!" Jenos pointed through the thick smoke that had appeared all around them. It was a large house, and it was on fire.

There was something in the air that told them that place was being protected. The fire wasn't eating it as fast as it should have, but it was still going to crumble. Train felt the tingle of magic on the air, and he was sure that Jenos felt something similar. Without words Jenos let go of Train's arm and slipped back into his dragon form. His scales were the green of the forest that had lived around the town before it was set afire. His eyes were the same though, nothing changed about them. They were just as cold and reptilian as they had been before. However there was intelligence in those eyes that let you know you weren't just looking at a rabid.

Train followed suit and slipped into his original form. His scales were brown, some were dark, and some were light. The fact that there was no uniform color gave him and interesting shine in the fire light. His eyes also stayed the same, but there was a rage in his eyes that hadn't been there before. It was no longer the rage of a teenage boy; it was the rage of a dragon who wanted revenge for the crimes that were committed against his family.

_I know what you're thinking, Train. You still can't go and fight Creed. We need to train, and we need our riders. I can feel Wiley in that building, there's no doubt about it. I would bet my life on Lynelle being in there too. Now let's go._ Jenos led the way toward the house. The flames had eaten a few feet into the house since he'd last looked. They were nearing the middle of the house.

Train leaped into the air before Jenos could stop him, and crashed into the building. The roof crashed in neatly around him, and landed in several piles. He wasn't a large dragon by any means, but he was large enough to think that the halls of this place were a little too small. Train scanned the area, looking for any signs of trouble, much to his disappointment; he didn't see anyone that he could shred into pieces with is claws.

Feeling slightly depressed and more than annoyed, Train shifted back into human form to start looking for his rider. "Lynelle!" Train yelled down the hall, hoping that there would be enough of an echo to let him be heard over the screams and the fire crackling. "Lynelle!" Train screamed again, this time in a different direction and louder, he was hoping that they would yell back and let him know where they were.

"Wiley!" Jenos yelled beside Train. From the lack of noise, Train figured that Jenos had flown in silently behind him and landed.

"Can you feel her?" Train asked. Jenos shook his head at Train. "You're helpful," Train commented. Jenos glared at Train, but didn't take it a step further like he would have liked. "We will have to split up then. I'll go that way," Train said, pointing away from the flames. Jenos gave Train a look that said he was annoyed, but slowly it sank in why Train was going that way. If train were to face the flames that had trapped his family, he would have snapped.

"Alright, we'll meet back here as soon as we're done checking. Be safe." Before Train said anything Jenos was already off and moving toward the flames.

"LYNELLE!" Train and Jenos stopped walking and looked toward the back of the house. Neither of them had thought that the girls would be outside of the house. Both dragons ran toward the back of the house. If something was bad enough to make Wiley scream like that, they needed help.

Shortly after Wiley's scream a large burst of magic was released. Jenos and Train stopped to look at each other before they started running faster. That much magic coming from one person wasn't safe. Even the most gifted elves never released that much in one go. The dragons slid to a stop in the garden. Lynelle was standing, holding a sword and pushing back against an invisible one. Creed was standing on the other end of the invisible sword. The hilt was visible, but the blade was nowhere to be seen. Creed had killed many dragons with that blade, the one that no one could see, save for when it was covered in blood.

"Creed…" Train growled as he stepped closer. A clawed hand on his shoulder stopped him from moving any closer. The pain of the claws snapped him out of his revenge fueled rage. With a grateful nod Train let Jenos move over to Wiley. She was sitting on the ground and bleeding from a deep gash in her arm. Wiley's eyes were shining brightly with rage and terror. The mix was dangerous, and there was no doubt that if she hadn't spent her magic making Lynelle's ring she would be up and attacking Creed.

"Wiley, are you okay?" Jenos asked. Wiley turned her metallic orange eyes on Jenos and nodded her head. Slowly her eyes turned back toward Creed. There was bloodlust in her eyes. "Come on, we have to get out of here. Train, try to get rid of Creed and grab Lynelle."

"She won't come," Train said without trying to get her. "She's locked in a state of need that nothing but Creed's death or escape will break her from. He hurt her friend and drew blood. Lynelle won't stop." Train knew how she felt. He had done the same thing when his best friend, and maybe future mate, had been killed and her head was rolling along the slope of the floor into a pool of blood. When Train had seen her head roll toward him, something inside of him had snapped. A killing rage came out of him like it had been kept behind that wall he didn't know existed for centuries when he wasn't even that old. The same thing was happening to Lynelle now.

"Then get rid of him! We have to get out of here before Lynelle dies. You know what happens if your rider dies. You will be banished for not protecting her. Get her and go."

"What is banishment but being taken away from those you love?" Train raged suddenly. "I have already had my banishment! I had my banishment when my family was killed and my best friend, probably my future mate was murdered and her head was chopped off. Her head rolled into a pool of blood that wasn't completely hers. I will see no more of it! I will see no more of this death by this mad man's hands!" Train shifted and roared into the air. He set his eyes on Creed and blew a plume of flame at Creed. Jenos screamed at Train to stop, but his words and his pleas fell on two sets of deaf ears.

"Train is right," Wiley commented. "They are both too far gone. Let me see what I can do." Wiley pushed Jenos off her, and stood up. Her left arm, her dominant arm hung limply at her side, but her right arm was just fine. She closed her eyes and drew up her magic from her core. Slowly she snaked the magic into their bodies and then into Jenos' body. Without warning the world around them shifted and Wiley dropped onto her hands and knees. They were no longer in the house; they were out in an open field, far away from the fire burning.

"Where did he go!" Lynelle raged as she let the sword swing around in anger. Train was blowing fire from his nostrils and looking for something to fry. Lynelle turned to Wiley and saw that her friend was covered in sweat and gasping for air, instantly Lynelle forgot about Creed and dropped the sword. "Wiley, what's wrong?" Lynelle asked.

As she was unable to answer Wiley shook her head and waved Lynelle away. Lynelle moved back, and let Wiley have her space. Jenos was standing off to the side and Train was tearing a large moat into the grass. Slowly Wiley's breathing returned to normal and she rolled onto her back to stare up at the sky.

"Now will you tell me what you did?" Lynelle asked.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Wiley laughed. "For now, I just want to rest," Wiley added.

"Try me," Lynelle crossed her arms over her chest and waited as she stared at Wiley. Wiley sighed and looked at Lynelle.

"Fine, I moved us from my house to the fields where my village used to be," Wiley said. "It was extremely dangerous, it was a last ditch effort, it nearly killed me, and if I had a choice, I would do it all over again, even knowing what would happen afterward. Now, shut up, and let me sleep," Wiley snapped before Lynelle or anyone could get in a word edgewise. Lynelle heaved a sigh and sat down on the ground. Wiley was quickly asleep and Jenos was resting beside her, keeping watch as she rested, like a good dragon.

"I'm sure that it wasn't just because Wiley was injured that you went into that rage," Train commented like it was a normal conversation. Lynelle looked at him out of the corner of her eye and sighed. He was right.

"You're right," Lynelle whispered so that only he could hear her. "That man, that crazy psychopath who loves nothing but blood covering his blade killed my parents. They were the only ones like me, they made sure that I was safe, and that even though I wasn't the same, I looked liked it. Now they're gone and I wasn't even able to grab anything to remember them by. They've only been gone a few minutes, but I already miss them."

"That man, no that creature, killed my village also," Train said. He knew what it was like to suffer without someone to help you when something important had been killed. "I saw someone I cared a lot about die. I saw her head roll into a pool of blood that wasn't just her own. That day I wanted nothing more than to stop everything and just hold her, the way I had before, but I knew that I would never know that joy again. I want that man to die; I want to be the one to kill him. I want to impale him on his own blade. You are not alone," Train whispered. Lynelle had nearly missed it, but she had caught it.

Carefully, gently, Lynelle laid a hand Train's shoulder and nodded her understanding. It was hard, and there would be harder times yet, but now that they had come to face the same things, at least they were together.

Disclaimer: I do not own Black Cat. I do not own Lynelle. Lynelle is © to BlackCatTrain. Wiley is © to me.


	4. Chapter 4

In the clearing where Wiley had fallen into her slumber, Train and Jenos paced. Both of them were on edge and ready to attack anything that moved. They were still revved up from the fight with Creed, the one who attacked the village. Lynelle was watching them, and occasionally looking at the ground to see who was going to wear a rut into the ground first.

"If you two don't stop and sit down, you're going to make ruts in the ground. People will think that we're going to start a new farming community here. Your ruts will be mistaken for irrigation canals." Train smirked at Lynelle and sat down on the ground behind her. Now that they had slowly started to become friends, Train could tell where she was. Eventually he would know how she felt, but that wasn't until the height of their partnership.

Jenos heaved a sigh and let his body fall onto the ground. He was on his back and staring up at the sky. Even though just moments before the sky had been filled with smoke and the air was filled with screams, here the sky was clear and the clouds were definitely fluffy. It was odd to think that somewhere people were screaming as they ran around their destroyed town, but here, in this clearing, it was one of the most peaceful places Jenos had ever been to.

"Didn't Wiley say that this was where her village used to be?" Train asked. Lynelle nodded her head. "I thought that she grew up with you in that village."

"Wiley came there when she was young. It was the closest village to where hers had been. It was destroyed, probably the same way mine was. Why?" Lynelle asked as she fixed her multi-colored eyes on Train.

"I was just thinking," Train answered. "If we're going to be dragon and rider, we have to know almost everything about each other. Since we're going to work as a team the same idea extends to everyone. I figured that while we were sitting here, we might as well start bonding. Though, I have to admit, food sounds really good right now." Train added. As if it had been cued, his stomach growled loudly. Train looked down at his stomach and felt a slight blush of embarrassment flush across his cheeks.

"I agree," Lynelle said. "Let's go find some food." Lynelle stood up and brushed off her butt of leaves and grass. She turned her attention to Jenos. "Will you stay here and look over Wiley?" Lynelle asked. Jenos nodded his head. With a nod of acknowledgment Lynelle motioned for Train to follow her. It would be a simple thing to get fruits out of the forest. Meat on the other hand, was another matter. No one had a bow, Lynelle only had a sword, but that wouldn't work very well against a deer that could run at least twice as fast as she could.

"Back in the village, I felt a huge burst of magic. It was your magic," Train added. "If any elf had released that much magic, they would be dead. Completely exhausted of any energy that they had, but you're not." Lynelle ignored his inquiry; it was a subject that she didn't want to talk about. "We're going to be partners," Train said. Lynelle stopped and sighed. She crossed her arms over her chest, as if she was trying to protect her body, and turned to Train.

"If you really want to know," Lynelle muttered. "I'm not an elf. I'm part elf, that's why I have magic, but I'm not completely an elf. The elders of the town kept my family and me hidden. Generations ago my very distant grandmother gave birth to a half elf half human. Over the generations the elf blood was diluted because my grandmother was killed in a battle. Her child went with the father, and the half child ended up marrying a human. Since then it's been the same until my parents came here seeking help. They didn't feel the same way about elves that most humans do. Since we have elf blood, even if it is just minute my parents were allowed to stay and were sheltered. They made us to look like elves, but I don't know how long it will last now that we're not in the village. Being mostly human is why I can't control my magic. I also have an odd abundance of magic, more than the elves now. No one knows why, but I try to hide it as best I can. In order to help me do that, Wiley made me this ring." Lynelle held up her hand to show Train. Train looked at the ring and probed it gently with his magic.

"It's just a ring," Train commented as he pulled his magic back to him.

"No, there magic all over it, trust me. Wiley is very skilled with her magic. If you aren't wearing it, I doubt that you would be able to tell that her magic is there. Wiley is the sneakiest person I know. If there's a back door through a spell, you can bet your life on it, that she'll find it, not only in record time, but she'll be inside of the spell before the person even knows. She's very good at what she does," Lynelle reiterated.

"Well apparently she's not that good, I can tell that she isn't completely elf either," Train commented. Lynelle looked at him. Wiley was as elf as they came. The only difference was that her eyes were metallic orange and they glowed. Lynelle's eyes widened. The only creature whose eyes glowed of their own accord, without reflecting light back, were demons. Could Wiley be part demon? "You mean you didn't know?" Train asked.

"Why wouldn't she have told me?" Lynelle asked. "It doesn't matter, Wiley is Wiley and her not telling me doesn't matter. Let's find food and get back. We can have our 'share' time with everyone when Wiley wakes." Lynelle started walking, at a faster pace, to the fruit trees. Train jogged to catch up with her, nearly tripping on the uneven ground. The fruit trees were easy to find.

Train grabbed the bottom branch of the tree and started to pull up into the tree. Lynelle rolled her eyes and looked at him. Instead of following his lead, Lynelle kicked the tree. The tree shook and dropped fruits into Lynelle's out stretched magic. The fruit landed gently in the dip of magic that she had created, the fruits didn't bruise and none of them dropped to the ground.

"Cheater," Train muttered as he dropped down from the tree and took off his shirt. Once he had made a bag out of his shirt Lynelle dropped the apples into the bag with a smile. Once all the apples were placed into Train's shirt, Lynelle looked into the trees. They had apples, now another fruit would be good.

"Aha, here is a plum tree," Lynelle said as she leaned against the trunk to stare into the branches overhead. Once again Lynelle kicked the tree and the fruits fell. Instead of placing the fruit into Train's shirt, Lynelle let them hover in the air in front of her. "Ready to go back?" Lynelle asked.

"Yeah," Train answered. They walked through the woods, back the way they came. No doubt that Jenos would be pacing again. Wiley might even be awake. After using all the magic that she had, Lynelle knew the other girl would be hungry.

"Oh, Train?" Lynelle asked.

"Yeah?" Train asked.

"Don't tell Wiley that I'm not an elf, she doesn't know. I want to be the one to tell her," Lynelle added. Train smiled his understanding. "Thank you. Feel free to eat an apple if you want it." Train looked at the red apples in his shirt that he was carrying. After a moment of debate Train decided that he would wait to eat an apple. It also didn't help that his hands were keeping the neck of his shirt closed so that the apples didn't fall out; he had tied the arms together to make sure that if apples went into the sleeves they wouldn't fall out.

The rest of the walk was quick and in silence. Instead of a tense silence, where you could cut the tension with a knife, it was a content silence. Even though neither had voiced their apology, the fact that they both knew the other was sorry, it was enough. Proper apologies would happen when they had the time and the means. When they were in sight of the clearing Lynelle saw that Wiley was awake and walking around, the walk was slow and tired, but at least Wiley was awake.

"Look, Wiley is awake," Lynelle said. Train looked up into the distance and saw that Wiley was indeed awake. He also noted the worried gait that she had.

"I think she's worried," Train commented.

"I have no doubts that she is," Lynelle laughed. "She hates if when she falls asleep and I'm there, but gone when she wakes up. It's really funny how I'm the older of the two of us. Let's hurry up before Wiley eats Jenos and spits him out." Lynelle broke into a flat out run, leaving Train to catch up. With a muttered curse and a roll of his eyes, Train watched her go. He already knew that it was pointless to try to stop her when she had her mind set on something. It didn't help that she had taken off at a dead run, and that was impossible for him while he was holding the shirt in his arms.

"Lynelle!" Wiley called. Lynelle heard the tone of relief in her voice. Wiley had been worried, but Lynelle had already known that. "Don't do that to me! You know that I hate it when you just disappear without saying something. You're supposed to stick around until I'm awake! What's wrong- Are those plums?" Wiley asked.

Lynelle laughed as she answered, "Yes, Wiley, they are plums. Would you like one?" Before Lynelle had even finished her sentence Wiley was grabbing several plums to eat. "They're for everyone, feel free to eat one, Jenos," Lynelle said as she moved the bag a few inches away from Wiley and closer to Jenos. "Grab one before she eats all of them," Lynelle hurriedly added. Jenos looked at the plums piled in Wiley's arm, and the huge bite that she had just taken out of one, and agreed. He took a few and moved off to the side before Wiley could think about stealing his.

Lynelle let her magic lower the plums to the ground and then sat down so they were in front of her. By that time Train had caught up to her and let the apples spill gently to the ground from his shirt. Lynelle caught Train's torso out of the corner of her eye. His chest was nothing but well defined muscle and smooth skin. Before the blush could cross her cheeks, but not before the picture was engrained into her mind's eye, Lynelle looked away and busied herself with eating a plum.

"Thanks for offering some help," Train commented. Lynelle grinned at him, plum juice dribbled down her chin as she paused in her chewing. "Lovely," Train laughed. Lynelle wiped the juice off her chin with her sleeve before taking another bite.

"These are delicious," Jenos commented.

"They used to be part of an orchard. Without the constant upkeep from my village, no doubt that the forest grew up around the trees and killed some of them off. I remember there were a few of our trees that had ended up cross bred with the wild versions. Those are probably the ones that are still alive. A lot of people loved our fruit," Wiley added. She looked down at the plums in her arms. The ignited a sense of loss in her heart that she hadn't felt in years. Nostalgia came soon after, but both of the emotions were easily pushed away.

"Well," Lynelle said, trying to change the subject from Wiley's lost childhood, "Train made a point to me earlier. If we're going to function as a team, and then as partners, we had better start telling each other everything, no matter how much we don't want to," Lynelle added. She'd known Wiley long enough to know that even though they were supposed to share everything, Wiley was going to keep her mouth shut when it came to something close to her heart. "Since it was my idea, I'll go first. I'm not an elf," Lynelle said. "I have elf blood, which allows me to use magic, but I'm not a full blooded elf, by any means. I have trouble controlling my magic, but Wiley had created this ring for me in order to help." Lynelle held up her hand to show everyone, technically the only person that didn't know was Jenos, but it wouldn't have been nice to single him out.

"I'll go next," Train said. "I have a deep seated rage, a killing rage when it comes to the man who attacked today. He killed everyone I cared about, and then demanded that I be his dragon. I fled from him since I wasn't strong enough to kill him. One day, I will kill him, and I will enjoy it." Jenos looked surprised; he hadn't realized that Creed had wanted Train to be his dragon. Everyone knew that dragons couldn't pair with humans. It just wasn't possible, however apparently humans didn't know that.

"I am able to send out wires of orichalum. They are indestructible and they cannot be escaped from, also I am terrified, and I mean literally terrified, of spiders. When I was younger I wandered into a cave, even though countless times I had been told not to. It turns out that the cave was infested with spiders, but those spiders were spiders specially adapted to killing and devouring dragons. They were larger than I am now as a dragon. Since then I have not been able to see a spider and not freak out," Jenos admitted. Slowly all eyes turned to Wiley. She scanned them and then looked down at her hands; she obviously didn't want to speak.

"Wiley," Lynelle started gently, "I know that whatever you want to tell us is painful, but if you tell us, we can help you. If you don't tell us, then you have to carry that burden all by yourself. You're weakest by yourself."

"There is a reason I am always alone," Wiley whispered. Before she continued, Wiley took a deep breath to calm her nerves. "I'm not an elf," Wiley said. "I don't have a drop of elven blood running through my veins. I look like an elf, I act like an elf, but I'm not an elf. My parents weren't really my parents. They found me in the woods one day and brought me into the village, they already knew what I was, but they still took care of me like their daughter. We were the ones who planted the trees and took care of the orchard. We did that because the rest of the village didn't care for me to be around them. I'm a demon, a full blooded demon. That's why I'm sneaky; I have a natural camouflage that allows me to look like what I want. If I was in group of dragons, in human form at least, I would look like a dragon. The thing that sets me apart is the color of my eyes and they glow." Wiley had closed her eyes as she spoke. Slowly she opened them and saw that no one had left while she was speaking.

"Congratulations," Train said. "We all have confessed deep dark secrets and none of us have been rejected. Now let's eat some more of this amazing fruit," Train said with a smile. He took a large bite of an apple and chewed. Jenos followed his lead and Wiley took a few, small, bites of another plum. Lynelle put a reassuring hand on Wiley's shoulder.

"Remember, we have each other. We're strongest together. You're not alone anymore. Even if you are a demon, that doesn't mean that you're not our friend," Lynelle said with a smile. Wiley smiled back and nodded her head in agreement.

"We're strongest together," Wiley whispered.

Disclaimer: I don't own Black Cat or Lynelle. Lynelle is © to BlackCatTrain. Wiley is © to me.


	5. Chapter 5

Time passed by slowly as everyone tried to figure out where to go, or even if they should go anywhere. Jenos though that someone no doubt would know about the attack and come looking for them. The closer to the village that they were, the more likely they were to be found, it seemed logical, but he was also forgetting one important thing. He was forgetting that no one was supposed to come get them until they finished their training in that village. Depending on the team, and then the partners, that could take months, maybe years. No one would think that something strange was going on until they sent a messenger. Even then they wouldn't know until that messenger came back with the news.

"I think that we should go to the nearest town where there are officials that decide who become a dragon rider," Lynelle said. Train agreed with her, and Wiley was silent. "Jenos, don't try to argue with me." Lynelle growled in his direction. Jenos glared at her, but said nothing further. He didn't want to awaken her wrath. He'd known enough women to know that when they tell you don't argue with me, you listened. "What do you think Wiley?" Lynelle asked. Wiley looked up from the ground where she had been staring and locked eyes with her friend.

"I don't know," Wiley answered. "There are too many variables. One being that we have no idea where the nearest town with officials is, we can't just fly around, that will definitely get us killed. Either we'll be killed by that rabid psycho or a group of human hunters in the woods that we don't know about until it's too late. We can't stay here either, it's too open and there's no shelter, and there's not clean running water for a while. All the wells that were here have been destroyed, so there's no well water either. I think that our only solution is to go and pretend that we're humans in a village and listen to rumors."

"What!" Her three companions screamed. Wiley cringed against the loud screams, it hurt her ears. Over the course of the few hours that they'd been debating Wiley had forced her camouflage to, essentially, turn off. Everyone was seeing her as she actually was now. She had long black hair, and her skin was very fair. It looked as if being outside would make her lobster red. The only thing that didn't change was the color of her eyes.

"It's the only thing that makes sense," Wiley commented. "Think about it," Wiley added. "We have no idea how far we have to go in order to get to the nearest village with officials. We can't just fly from city to city, that would lead the humans straight to other villages that aren't prepared to fight. We also can't stay here, there's no water and no shelter. Elves are resilient, and demons even more so, however I doubt that we would survive very long without fresh water. I know that there is a human village not that far from here, I can smell the vile thing. Until we know more about what's going on, we have to blend in. Lynelle will look human in a few days, and I'm sure that you two can alter your features enough while in this form that you can pass as humans. I don't like it as much as you do, but of all of us, I'm going to have the most trouble blending in. My eyes don't change," Wiley added when she saw the confused look on her friend's faces.

"You are absolutely crazy," Jenos commented as he crossed his arms over his chest and refused to look at her. It was his way of saying that her idea was ridiculous and there was no merit to it. Wiley, however, knew otherwise. It was the best idea that they had, eventually the others would see it, and she knew it.

"It makes sense," Train commented, reluctantly. "I can understand where she's coming from and it does make sense. It's risky, terribly so, especially since Wiley can't change how her eyes look and Jenos and I have to change back into our dragon forms every once in a while. It's our best option though. I'm for it," Train added. Lynelle stared at Train, there was a glare working into her eyes. The fact that Train had sided with Wiley, who wasn't his rider, felt like a betrayal. Similar to a girl walking in to see her boyfriend messing around with her best friend, it hurt, and Lynelle was going to make sure that Train knew it.

"That's idiotic! They'll know and they'll kill us. I have no doubts about that. You two can go into that village, but I'm not," Lynelle crossed her arms over her chest and looked away from the others. Her decision was final. Wiley sighed and looked at Lynelle.

"Lynelle, I know that you're afraid, I am too, but this is something that we have to do. It's essentially undercover work until we know where we need to go. I hate this idea, I really do, but it's the best one we've got. We can't go around looking for villages that we don't know where they are, and we can't stay here, as much as it seems like a good idea. Trust me," Wiley added. "If we work together we can do this, but none of us can do it alone." Wiley moved to sit next to Lynelle. Gently she put a hand on Lynelle's shoulder and waited for her friend to look into her eyes.

"I don't want to go near them," Lynelle whispered. "They took everything that I had awake from me. They killed my parents, they destroyed my home. No matter what happens that place will never be like it was before. It will be gone, just another casualty. I don't want to go into that stinking village and deal with those damn humans. They're worthless, they're killing everything. Elves at least live in harmony with nature. For everything that we take, we give something back."

"Lynelle, you're not an elf," Wiley whispered. Lynelle shot a glare at Wiley. Wiley ignored the glare and squeezed her friend's shoulder. It was a sympathetic squeeze, one to show that she cared. "I know, that's the mentality of how you grew up. In every way that matters, you are an elf, just as I am. However according to our genetic codes, you are mostly human and I am a demon. Those facts of who we are don't define us, they make up one small part of what we are. Now do you trust me enough to know that we have to do this?" Wiley asked. Lynelle looked at Wiley. Wiley's eyes were always hard to read, but right now, they were crystal clear. Wiley was scared, closer to terrified, but she was still willing to do this because she knew that she had to. If there was someone that would be terrified of humans it was Wiley.

"I trust you," Lynelle said. Wiley smiled and slowly her eyes closed up. Lynelle knew that it would be a great deal of time before she saw that much emotion in Wiley's eyes ever again. "As soon as the residual magic from the spell that was put on me fades, we'll head into the town and find a way to survive there. It's three to one, Jenos, don't try to argue." Jenos glared at Lynelle as he closed his mouth after opening it to protest. "In the mean time, I think that we should get as much rest as we can. No doubt we're going to need it if we're going to make sure that we're at the top of our game just in case we are found out."

"Agreed," Wiley agreed immediately. "Jenos, let's go get some more fruit," Wiley said. "I would like to pay a visit to the trees that I planted when I was younger. I'm sure that they miss me," Wiley added.

"How can trees miss you?" Jenos asked as he reluctantly stood up. Wiley was already waiting for him by the time he straightened to his full height.

"You'll see when we get there," Wiley answered. Jenos caught a glimpse of a devious look in her eyes, and instantly became wary, but still followed after her.

"Scared?" Train asked as soon as Wiley and Jenos were out of ear shot. Lynelle looked at Train and nodded her head as she stared at the ground. "Me too," Train admitted. Lynelle looked at Train skeptically. "What? A dragon can't be afraid of something?" Train asked.

"It's weird to think that a dragon would be afraid of something," Lynelle answered. Train nodded his head in understanding.

"Normally dragons are thought of as creatures that fear nothing, who are noble and elegant and will fight until death if the situation calls for it. Even though we're great creatures, that don't mean that we can't be afraid of something," Train explained. "Especially when it comes to the unknown," he added as he locked eyes with Lynelle's. "I'm just as afraid as you are," Train added.

"Hard to believe, but I believe you," Lynelle said. "I'm sure that we'll make it through this, so long as my magic doesn't decide to act out on its own. Luckily I have the ring that Wiley made for me. I should be okay as long as I pay attention to what the ring is telling me. I'm also worried about Wiley. This village is the one that attacked hers, I'm pretty sure that eventually we'll have to restrain her. She's excellent at controlling her emotions, but eventually her control will slip."

"Hopefully Wiley won't see anyone that she recognizes from the attack." Train patted Lynelle on the back and then moved closer to wrap his arm around her shoulders. "There isn't anything that a dragon and a dragon rider can't do. So long as we work together we can do this. Don't forget that. I'm going to see if I can find something for us to eat besides fruit. I'm sure that Jenos is in need of meat as much as I am." Lynelle then realized that a dragon's diet was much different from her own. Normally she ate very little meat, as little as she could manage, and then as much fruit as she wanted. She would have to change her eating habits as soon as she reached the village.

Halfway to the forest on the opposite side of the clearing Train fluidly slipped into his dragon form and then bounded into the forest. He disappeared into the dense trees quickly. Lynelle couldn't believe that such a large creature could disappear so quickly. Dragons were one of the most interesting creatures that she had ever seen, let alone had the honor to talk to.

As Lynelle sat in the clearing by her lonesome, her mind drifted from memory to memory. The first memories that she remembered were those with her parents. They were wonderful to her, and they kept her safe. On her birthday they would always make her favorite meal and let her eat as much of it as she wanted. They would also give her small gifts. None of their gifts compared to Wiley's in size, but they were always thoughtful and she had always loved them.

When she felt the tears dripping down her cheeks, leaving small tracks in the grime on her face, Lynelle pulled her mind away from her parents. Crying over their loss would do them no good, and there was no doubt in her mind that her parents would want her to avenge them as much as she could.

Instead of waiting alone and letting her mind wander back to happier times, Lynelle closed her eyes and allowed her mind and body to doze. She was alert enough to know when someone was coming or when someone was close, but it was also a state of rest that she needed. Even as a heavy weight in the magic business, she had used a lot of hers and she needed rest.

Wiley walked through the trees quickly and silently, it was almost as if she wasn't walking on the ground. Jenos was having a hard time keeping up with her and she often had to stop and let him catch up. He also seemed to step on all the large twigs and snap those, making the sound resonate through the trees. Wiley would roll her eyes and laugh at him. Jenos would grumble at her, but didn't get angry.

"I take it you didn't grow up in the woods?" Wiley asked. Jenos shook his head. "That explains in then. You should try stepping on exposed roots, they don't make as much noise as twigs do, and it's a little easier to walk on. It also gets you above all the leaves there the small pockets and dips hide. It's fairly easy to break your ankle in woods like these." Jenos put a foot onto a tree root and continued to walk through the woods on the roots of the trees.

"You're right, this is easier," Jenos commented. "Thank you. So, if I may ask, why didn't you just stay here when your village was attacked?"

"For a while the humans lived here," Wiley answered. "I wouldn't have been able to blend in with them when I was that age. They would have killed me outright, especially after what I did to a few of the people when I got my hands on them. I had to leave, so I took what I needed from my house, one of the few that hadn't been burned yet, and ran away to the nearest village. That nearest village was the one with Lynelle in it, quite a distance away."

"What exactly did you do to the humans?" Jenos asked warily. Wiley stopped walking and turned to him. He saw that there was pain in her eyes, no doubt from reliving the terrible things that happened that day.

"I did to them what they deserved," Wiley answered. "The ones that I could get my hands on, I tore them to pieces, leaving only their head intact. I threw the heads into the center of the town and then threw the bloody scraps of what was left of the bodies all over town to warn them that I was out there. No one ever saw me, but I knew they were looking for me. Sometimes after I had killed someone, I would tear the body to pieces and then take the head and the heart with me. As soon as I found the person in charge I would wait until they were gone and then put the head and the heart into their bed and wait until the scream came before I disappeared into these woods. There was quite a large chunk of time when my hands were coated in nothing but human blood."

"They deserved it," Jenos whispered. He felt the power radiating from her body. Wiley was the first demon that he had ever met, and she would no doubt be the last. They were powerful; they worked in ways that most other species couldn't understand. "Are you sure you'll be able to go into that human town knowing that they were the ones that took your home away from you?" Wiley knew that he had a point.

"It's not something that I have a choice about," Wiley said as she wrapped her arms around her chest. "It's something that we need to do, that we _have_ to do. I will do everything that I can in order to make sure that I don't do anything…out of character. Come on," Wiley said as she dropped her arms and turned around. She started walking on the roots again, a little faster than before.

"Wiley," Jenos said as he jumped from root to root and grabbed her arm. "I'm your dragon, your soon to be partner in crime. If there is anything that you want to talk about, and I mean anything, you can talk to me. I won't hold it against you, and I certainly won't tell you what you did was wrong. I will help you as best I can, in any way that you need it. So please, tell me if there's anything that you need help with." Wiley looked Jenos over a few times before she nodded her head to signify that she understood and she would accept his proposal for now.

As Wiley had been looking him over Jenos had seen something in her eyes that he didn't expect. According to how they were taught to view demons, they were heartless creatures that only cared to hurt people and to gain something from it. He saw the hurt and the pain in her eyes, that hadn't been fabricated to throw him off that had been real hurt in her eyes. Wiley was just like him in many ways.

"Catch!" Jenos jumped and his hand shot up to catch an apple that had been throw at him. Wiley snickered. "Did I catch you off guard?" Wiley asked. Jenos scowled playfully and stalked up to her. "What are you doing?" Wiley asked as she prepared to take a step back.

"Nothing," Jenos answered. He grabbed her arm and held it tightly, but not tight enough to cause her pain. "Showing you something called tickle torture," Jenos said. Wiley's eyes widened. Jenos quickly started tickling her side, and held her arm fast with his right hand.

"Ahh! Haha! Stop! Jenos stop it! Hahaha!" Wiley laughed and wiggled as she tried to get away from Jenos.

"Feel better?" Jenos asked after a few moments. Wiley sagged against him and nodded her head as she laughed out the residual giggles still in her system from the tickle torture that Jenos had provided. "Good, now grab the fruit and let's go." Wiley pushed off of Jenos and reached up into the tree to grab more fruit.

The walk back through the woods was quicker and less eventful. When they got back into the clearing, Lynelle was building put a fire and Train was skinning a deer with his claws.

"Welcome back, we've got meat!" Train held up a slab of meat he had pulled from the animal. Jenos felt his mouth watering, and Wiley was staring at the deer hungrily. "Help me skin it and we can eat faster." Wiley and Jenos jogged the rest of the way to the fire and set the fruit down before Jenos started helping Train.

"We went hunting," Lynelle said. "He said that Jenos and he could eat the meat raw, however we're not so lucky. Hence the fire," Lynelle added. Wiley nodded and handed Lynelle an apple.

"Tomorrow we have to go to the human village," Wiley commented.

"I know," Lynelle muttered. She still wasn't happy that she had to go to the village of humans who wanted nothing more than to see anything magical destroyed for their own selfish use, and to be the 'ultimate' race. "Will you be okay while we're in the village?" Lynelle asked. Even though she wasn't looking at her friend, Lynelle felt Wiley tense up.

"I have to be," Wiley answered. Lynelle knew when to drop the subject. "Let's not worry about that until we have to. Let's just enjoy the last night that we don't have to live with humans."

"I think I can agree to that," Lynelle smiled and raised her apple in agreement.


	6. Chapter 6

Wiley opened her eyes and looked at the sky. From the position of the stars and the moon she knew that it was late morning, nearing dawn. Instead of closing her eyes and falling back asleep, Wiley got up and started walking around to wake up. Once her blood was moving through her body, Wiley looked at her companions. They looked disheveled and dirty. Most humans who had traveled a good distance looked that way, this was to their advantage.

"Lynelle, wake up," Wiley said as she shook her friend awake. Lynelle batted Wiley away from her and rolled over closer to Train who was her source of warmth. "Lynelle," Wiley grabbed Lynelle under the shoulders and dragged her to her feet. "It's time to wake up, we have to start acting like weary traveling humans looking for a place to live," Wiley added.

"Five more minutes," Lynelle muttered as she sagged in Wiley's arms. With a growl of frustration, Wiley dropped Lynelle unceremoniously on the ground. "Ow!" Lynelle yelped when she hit the ground hard. "Okay, I'm up, I'm up," Lynelle muttered.

"The sun isn't up, that's way too early to be awake," Jenos muttered from the other side of Train. Wiley rolled her eyes and then ignored him for the time being.

"Wake Train, I'll get Jenos," Wiley instructed. Lynelle yawned and stretched before she set to work on waking her dragon. Wiley bent down on the ground and put her mouth right next to Jenos' ear. For a second she sat there and breathed, she took in a deep breath. "WAKE UP!" Jenos jumped and looked around for the source of the scream in his ear which was now ringing. When his eyes fell on Wiley and her smirking grin, Jenos grumbled but got off the ground where he had been sleeping anyway.

Lynelle looked down at where Train was sleeping and sighed. She felt bad for waking him up, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to do it. Lynelle nudged Train with her foot a few times before giving up and bending down.

"TRAIN!" Train leapt up and looked around like he was looking for an attacker. Lynelle snickered. "Good morning, sunshine," Lynelle commented.

"The sun isn't even up," Train muttered as he turned on his side and started to lie back down. Lynelle grabbed his shoulder and flipped him over. "What?" He groaned.

"We have to get up," Lynelle answered. She put her hands on her hips and looked at him. Train muttered under his breath and got off the ground. He obviously wasn't happy about being awake before the sun came up, but Lynelle knew that as soon as they started moving around he would wake up.

"Now what?" Train asked as he rubbed at his eyes.

"Eat a piece of fruit and then be ready to get dirty," Wiley answered. Lynelle looked at her friend and sighed, so much for staying somewhat sanitary. Lynelle grabbed a plum and took a large bite of it, Train did the same and Jenos was already munching down an apple. Wiley was walking around the campsite looking at the ground.

"Wiley, please tell me you aren't going to smear the dirt all over us," Jenos commented as he tossed the core of his apple away. Wiley looked up at him and just smiled before going about her business. Jenos groaned and watched as she walked around. Eventually she found what she was looking for.

"When you're done eating, come here," Wiley called over to the others. Jenos reluctantly walked over to Wiley. "I'm going to smear some dirt all over your face to make it look like we've been traveling for a while. When we get to the village, we're going to have to pretend to be a young couple whose town was destroyed by a disaster. Train and Lynelle will have to do the same." Once Wiley finished explaining what she was going to do, she grabbed a handful of dirt and proceeded to smear it all over Jenos' face. She grabbed his hands and rubbed them in the dirt, and threw the dust like dirt onto his clothes. By the time she was finished Jenos looked like he'd been walking for a few days.

"Alright, now do me," Wiley instructed as she held her arms out to the side to allow Jenos to do what he needed to. He picked up the dirt and rubbed it onto Wiley's face; he threw the dirt onto her pants and shirt, and tousled some into her hair for good measure. "Perfect," Wiley commented as she looked down at herself. "Thank you Jenos," Wiley added with a slight smile. Jenos nodded to her and saw Train and Lynelle coming over. "Ready you two?" Wiley asked as she bent down and gathered up two handfuls of dirt. Lynelle sighed and nodded her head.

With a quick smile, Wiley threw the handfuls of dirt onto Lynelle's clothing. She took the dirt on her hands and put them on Lynelle's face. In order to make sure that the dirt smudges didn't look like hand prints, Wiley moved them over Lynelle's face, gently as she could while still moving the dirt around. For good measure, Wiley put her hands back into the dirt and proceeded to tangle Lynelle's hair and get dirt in it. Jenos was doing the same thing to Train.

"Done?" Train asked when Jenos took his hands away from Train's hair. Jenos looked over Train and nodded his head.

"Yeah, done," Jenos confirmed. Train looked down at his clothes and scowled. He looked like a disaster. "Now you look like you've always should," Jenos commented with a laugh. Train rolled his eyes and ignored Jenos with a wave of his hand. "How are you coming over there?" Jenos asked as he looked over at Wiley.

"I think I have tangled myself into Lynn's hair," Wiley answered. Whenever she pulled her fingers Lynelle winced. "Sorry," Wiley said. "Jenos, Train, can we have a little help over here?" Wiley asked. Train and Jenos both snickered and walked over. Carefully the two dragons untangled Wiley's fingers from Lynelle's hair. "Thank you."

"Yeah, thank you," Lynelle agreed as she rubbed her head. "Should we start heading out?" Lynelle asked. Wiley looked at the sky and nodded her head.

"Yes, that would be a good idea. We want to get there around 9. If we walk slowly we should look like weary travelers and arrive late enough in the day to make it seem like we had been walking for a little while. Ready to pretend to be human?" Wiley asked.

"I really don't want to," Jenos commented. Wiley ignored him and looked at the other two. Both Lynelle and Train nodded.

"Good, off we go."

After three hours of dragging their feet, and practicing looking tired and nearly dead, the dragons and their riders arrived at the village. The village was actually quite large, larger than they had expected. There were going to be more important people to fool.

"Who are you?" A guard demanded as him as his partner barred the entrance to the village. Lynelle jumped and looked surprised. "Answer me," the guard ordered. He was an older man, probably mid to late twenties. His hair was brown and had a full beard that looked like it hadn't been tended to in a few months. His hands were callused and it looked like he had used that spear more than the younger man standing next to him, but slightly behind.

"My apologies," Lynelle said. She had to speak slower to make sure that her voice was raspy and seemed as if it took a lot of energy to talk. "My friends and I have been travelling for a few days. Our village was destroyed and this was the nearest town that we knew of. We're very tired and wish for water and a new start. Can you tell us where to go, kind sir?" Lynelle asked. The words tasted like poison as they left her mouth, but she knew that their survival depended on being believable.

"You want the church. Walk down the road behind me until you come to the inn. Once you come to the inn, take a left and go down that alley. The church is the large building with the graveyard next to it. It's build of stone with a cross on the roof. You can't miss it." The guard stepped out of their way and allowed them to pass. Lynelle trudged through the entrance while the others followed her. As soon as they were out of earshot of the guard Wiley spoke up.

"Good job," Wiley said. "Now we just have to make sure that the priest at the church believes us."

"Are you able to go into churches?" Train asked as he looked at Wiley. Wiley glared at him.

"Yes, I can go into churches. I might be a demon, but demons aren't from hell, contrary to popular belief," Wiley added. "Don't ask. Maybe I'll explain it some other day," Wiley added. Train shrugged as he continued to half walk, half stumble down the road. They quickly came to the inn and turned left like they were told to.

The alley way was wet with water and other substances that no one cared to guess at. There was moss growing on the walls of the stone buildings, algae formed in puddles that obviously never went away, and it smelled like something died.

"This is disgusting," Lynelle muttered as she restrained herself from holding her nose. The people who were walking through the alley paid them no mind, and didn't care where they stepped. There were a few times when people stepped in puddles and the rancid water splashed up onto them.

"At least you do not smell it like we are," Jenos muttered as he gasped for breath before going back to holding it. Train was nodding his agreement and looked like he was about to be sick. Lynelle looked at Wiley, she was pale and sweat was beading on her forehead.

"This is horrid," Wiley whispered. "Walk faster, I think I'm going to puke," Wiley added as she picked up the pace. The others followed her lead and quickly found themselves at the large church that the guard had told them about.

"Train, Jenos, one of you has to do this. The church doesn't view women and men as equals. You are supposed to be in charge of us, therefore you speak for us," Lynelle said.

"I'll do it," Train offered. He grabbed the large brass door knocker and knocked on the door. The knock resonated through the wood of the doors and alerted anyone inside that there was someone there. The noise from knocking soon faded, no one could hear anything from the other side of the door. Train was just about to knock again when someone pulled open the door. It was a man, skinny and bald. It was hard to tell his age as his face was completely devoid of any hair, just as his head was.

"Can I help you?" The man asked.

"We are here to ask for your help," Train answered. His voice sounded tired, just like it was supposed to. "Our village was destroyed by a landslide. We've been walking for days and a guard at the entrance said that you could help us. Please, we need water." Train wanted to spit the words from his mouth and then wash it with soap. He hated these creatures that they had to pretend to be. They killed dragons and elves and burned down villages.

"Very well, come in." The priest stepped aside to allow them through. He was looking down his nose at them. "Have a seat in the back pews, away from the people praying for their salvation. I will be right back with food and water for you. Do not touch anything, the eyes of God are on you, if you do anything that he does not approve of, your immortal souls will go to Hell and be tortured until the end of time." Once he was done issuing his threats, the priest turned away and walked briskly to the kitchen.

"Pleasant person," Wiley commented. She looked around the church. Instead of seeing a place of salvation, she saw a place where people were being looked down upon. "If I was human, I think that I would be among the people who didn't worship. I'd rather be branded a heretic."

"I'd have to agree," Jenos commented as he looked around. There were paintings of devils devouring people, there were horrible scenes carved into stone for everyone to see.

"I see you're looking at the carvings of hell," the priest said when he came back. Everyone jumped and pulled their tired masks across their faces. "Take heed of these carvings and make sure to repent for your sins. That is what is waiting for you in hell. Those devils, the dragons and the elves are waiting there to play with your immortal soul. The demons look upon your torture and grow stronger so that they might come into our world and make this a new hell." Lynelle felt the tension from her friends growing.

"Thank you," Lynelle said. "We would like a moment alone, to pray for what was lost to us, and for this wonderful food." A smile spread across the priest's face. He set the tray of food down on the pew next to Lynelle and walked off.

"I'm going to kill him," Wiley hissed. "He does not know what a demon is. I will show him torture. I will teach him how to fear for his immortal soul." Jenos grabbed Wiley's shoulders as she started to stand. "Let. Me. Go."

"You're going to blow our over," Jenos growled back at her. "Ignore him, he doesn't know what he's talking about. He's just spouting what he was taught to spout. Eventually they will get what is coming to them."

"Wiley, if you can't handle this, we can leave. Find somewhere else to go," Lynelle offered.

"No," Wiley said as she took a deep breath and closed her orange eyes. "I can do this," Wiley opened her eyes. They were still glowing slightly, but not as much as they had been before. She looked down and pretended that she was praying. "Thank you," Wiley added.

"What are friends for?" Lynelle asked. They kept their heads bowed long enough to make it seem like they had been praying. Wiley crossed herself like she had seen several people do before, and the others followed suit. Lynelle passed the food and drink down the line. Wiley raised an eyebrow and lifted the spoon to her mouth.

"What is this?" Train asked. "I wouldn't call this edible." Train put a spoonful in his mouth and nearly spit it out. Instead he clenched his teeth and swallowed the gruel. Try as he might, he couldn't keep the pained look from his face. "This is disgusting," Train whispered. He stuck his tongue out of his mouth and tried to scrape the substance off his tongue with the spoon.

"Eat it," Lynelle muttered. She was having a hard time eating it as well. Wiley had decided to shovel as much as she could into her mouth and swallow as much as she could. Hers was the first bowl empty. Jenos poured the bowl into his mouth and swallowed. It was gone in three swallows. Train held his nose and did the same as Jenos and Lynelle ate hers like a normal person. When they were all finished and they had even drank the water they were so kindly given, the priest came back and took the tray and dishes from them.

"There is one more thing that we must as of you," Train said. "Do you think you could provide us with food and lodgings? Maybe a job around the church?" Train asked. "We know that we have just arrived here, and we are asking so much of you, but we have nothing left of our home. Anything that you can provide would be most welcome."

"There are two houses that are in the church's possession. You will have to work for the church to pay for the houses. There are simple furnishings there and there are jobs that are needed all around town. The women will work here, and you two must find jobs elsewhere. Will that work?" Instead of waiting for the answer, the priest turned and left. He motioned for them to follow. Quickly everyone removed themselves from the pews and followed the priest.

Once he had grabbed his shoes the priest left the church and they obediently followed him. He led them through the town, to the other side, near the opposite wall and pointed at two houses side by side.

"You can decide who gets to stay in either one, and I'm afraid that there is much work that needs to be done to these houses. You two will be tending the graveyard, weeding, washing the headstones, and whatever else needs to be done there. You start tomorrow at sunrise. Good luck with finding your jobs, may God have mercy and assist you." With a dip of his head the priest turned and left, leaving them to decide who was going to get which house.

"I think I'm going to kill myself instead of kill them," Wiley muttered as she looked at the two houses. "Jenos and I will take this one," Wiley said as she walked toward the more desolate of the houses. "Don't argue, Lynelle." Wiley added as she put a foot onto the porch. She tested her weight on the porch and heard the ominous creaking.

"Fine, be careful," Lynelle said as she and Train walked toward the other house. They walked up onto the porch and disappeared inside to go look at the state of the inside.

"We're going to need a lot of luck in order to fix this place up and survive," Wiley muttered. The rotting board held her weight as she gingerly walked across the porch. Jenos followed suit and soon enough they found themselves inside.

Lynelle looked at the inside of the house. It was nice. There was a kitchen, and a dining room on the first floor and two bedrooms upstairs. In the smaller of the two bedrooms there were two beds and a closet. The larger bedroom had a single, larger, bed and the sheets looked like they had been eaten alive. No doubt they were going to need new sheets.

"Could be worse," Train commented as he opened the trunk at the end. A large rat screeched at him and jumped out before disappear into a hole in the wall. Lynelle gave Train a look and he shrugged. "At least there are no cockroaches."

"Alright, you're right could be worse. Let's go look in the cupboards downstairs."

"Somehow, I can't picture you cooking. I think you would burn everything." Lynelle rolled her eyes and ignored him. The kitchen was the nicest part of the house, and the cleanest. The table was sturdy and didn't rock, and as far as they could tell there were no rat holes, or mice holes. "I guess I had better go into town and look for a job. I'll leave you to it," Train said as he looked around. There wasn't much to do, so he knew that Lynelle wouldn't mind.

"Don't do anything stupid," Lynelle advised. Train flashed a grin before disappearing out the front door. "This place is a disaster," Lynelle muttered. "At least it's not as bad was Wiley's house.

"Train went out into town?" Wiley asked as she came through the front door. Lynelle nodded her head. "Jenos did too. Guess we just have to sit around and wait. Excited to start work tomorrow?" Wiley asked.

"Oh yes, I'm so filled with joy I looked depressed," Lynelle muttered. "What's the damage on your place?"

"Rotting boards, rats, mold, nothing I wasn't expecting. With a little magic the place will be spick and span in no time."

"As soon as we have money, we need sheets," Lynelle said. "And clothes."

"Same here," Wiley smiled. "It's the same thing all over again. Well, we better start looking for something to cook for dinner," Wiley said.

"Want to go rat hunting?" Lynelle asked as she brandished a large knife.E

"Why, I thought you would never ask!" Wiley said as she batted her eyelashes. Lynelle and Wiley laughed.

"At least we have each other," Lynelle commented. Wiley nodded her agreement and smiled at her friend.

"This will be a cake walk. The beginning is the hardest part."

"I certainly hope so."

Disclaimer: I don't own Black Cat. Lynelle is © to BlackCatTrain. Wiley is © to Me.


	7. Chapter 7

Jenos grumbled as he walked through the town. It had been a few hours since he'd left the house he now shared with Wiley, and he'd been to several places to inquire about work, but he hadn't had any luck. No one would take a chance and hire an outsider who had just arrived and had no one but another outsider to vouch for him.

Deciding that he needed a break from looking for work, Jenos turned back to where he and Train as split up. When Jenos came upon the spot he turned left down the intersecting main street and looked around until he spotted Train. Train was standing outside the blacksmith's forge. The blacksmith was a large man; his shoulder span was at least twice as big as Train's. His hair was black, graying in a few places, giving him a salt and pepper look to his hair. His arms were the size of Jenos' legs, and looked every bit the part he was supposed to be.

The large blacksmith clapped Train on the shoulder and laughed. Train not expecting the force of the blow nearly toppled over, causing the blacksmith to laugh even more. Train chuckled but looked uncomfortable. After what seemed like an eternity the blacksmith removed his hand and nodded at Train. Train grinned and bowed his head over and over again to thank the blacksmith. Jenos jogged closer to listen to what the man was saying.

"Please, I need all the help that I can get. I'm not worried about you being an outsider so long as you can learn the trade and produce good work. You'll start tomorrow that way you have time to get things in order."

"Thank you, sir," Train said.

"Call me Victor. I'll see you tomorrow!" Train waved good-bye and then walked to where Jenos was standing.

"A blacksmith," Jenos commented as he looked Train up and down. "I never expected that. You're much too scrawny to be doing that sort of job. Lynelle is going to have to prepare feasts, not meals for you. Well, she would have had to do that anyway with your appetite. I guess she'll just have to drag in the cow for you to eat." Train rolled his eyes and ignored Jenos.

"Have you found a job yet?" Train asked.

"No, no one will take a chance and hire me," Jenos answered. Train thought a moment before looking Jenos over. "What are you thinking in that thick head of yours?" Jenos asked as he took a step away from Train, just in case.

"I'm thinking that you would make a good bartender," Train answered. "That's where I was going to go if Victor didn't hire me. I'm sure that the women will like you, well, at least when they're drunk," Train added. Jenos glared at Train but knew that he had a point. Only drunk women ever laughed at his advances.

"Alright, lead the way," Jenos said as he motioned for Train to take the lead. Train did and Jenos followed close behind him. Neither one of them liked being in the town, and they certainly didn't enjoy the smell of humans. Small sacrifices for what would save their lives. Train stopped in front of an old rickety building that looked like it was being held up by the owner's sheer force of will. "This is the bar?" Jenos asked. "I wouldn't even call this a hut," Jenos looked at the wooden beams out front supporting the two premium rooms above.

"Beggars can't be choosers," Train commented as he grabbed Jenos' arm and shoved him forward. Jenos sighed and walked in. The place was a dump. There was old straw covering the floor, trying to do its job and soak up whatever fluids were spilled, but it hadn't been changed in what smelled like months and the floor was covered with slime. There was no doubt in Jenos' mind that it was a mixture of cheap beer, urine, and spit. He couldn't believe that he was walking through the place. At first he thought that the toxic compound of beer, urine, and spit was going to eat through his boots, but luckily, and much to his pleasure, his boots stayed intact and didn't disintegrate as he walked.

"What can I help ya with?" the bartend asked. Jenos looked away from the floor and kept the disgusted look off of his face. The bartend was older than he was, but that was just in looks. The top of his head was bald, his nose took up most of his face and was bright red, his cheeks were fat and there was a gullet on his neck.

"I heard that you could use a new bartender," Jenos commented. "I came to see if the job was still open, and if it was what I might have to do in order to have that job." Jenos leaned on the counter and felt it wobble slightly. Jenos ignored it, but moved his weight to stand on his feet more than the counter. It wouldn't do to suddenly have the bar tip over and send him sprawling.

"Can you hold a nozzle down?" Jenos nodded. "You're hired. You start tonight at 8. You'll find out the rules then. Now be gone with ya," Jenos took his dismissal and left before the bartend could change his mind. Once outside Jenos gagged and leaned over a pile of trash in the alleyway, just in case he threw up.

"That bad?" Train asked. Jenos lifted his head and nodded.

"The floors are covered with rotting hay, cheap beer, piss, and spit. It smells like a human latrine that no one had the decency to cover up. I can't believe that I'm going to be working in there. Maybe I can get Wiley to help me and she'll weave a spell over my nose to keep me from smelling that horrible, horrible place."

"It's only going to be worse tonight when there are actually people in there," Train commented. "Look on the bright side, it's only temporary," Train said as he patted Jenos on the back, trying to comfort the other dragon.

"Temporary, yes, but we don't know how long 'temporary' is." Jenos sighed and straightened up. After a few deep breaths he was okay, and he and Train walked back through the town to get to their houses, which were as much in a state of disrepair as the bar had been.

Wiley held up a dead rat and looked at it. The rat was covered in fleas and ticks. Wiley muttered under her breath and threw it out the window. Lynelle did the same with the rat that she had caught.

"I don't know what we're having for dinner," Wiley commented as she looked around. "I hate to say this, but I think that we might have to go to the church and ask for more food. Lynelle sighed and shook her head.

"I would rather not go back to that church. I thought priests were supposed to be kind and help you, while at the same time leading you to their 'God.' That man was anything but nice," Lynelle muttered as she sat down on a hard wooden chair. Wiley walked over and laid a hand on Lynelle's shoulder.

"Maybe the boys have found work and have some money. If they do, we can go buy what we need. If not, I guess we'll have to live without food tonight. We've been through worse. Remember the one day that we ended up in the stocks because we thought that we could get out of them?" Wiley asked. Lynelle laughed as she nodded her head.

"I can't believe that we didn't feel that they absorbed any magic that we threw at them! It was ridiculous! Everyone thought that it was a good lesson to learn. We were in the stocks for an entire day. If I remember right, we were supposed to be in there for two, but you got us out," Lynelle said. "I never did understand how you got us out."

"I used a bit of demon magic," Wiley answered. "The spell on the stocks didn't realize that it was magic, it was only used to elf magic, which I can do. I have had enough practice. So I used a bit of magic and we were free. Free to terrorize people once more. Well, free to go pay for a huge meal and drink anyway." Wiley laughed.

"Those were the good days," Lynelle commented. Wiley nodded her head in agreement. They fell into content silence as they remembered all the fun they had getting into trouble. They had been famous for doing crazy things that no one else would think of. They were good at it, and they loved to do it.

"What are you two up to?" Train asked as he walked in the door. Jenos was right behind him.

"Oh, nothing," Wiley answered as she moved away from Lynelle with a smile. Lynelle smiled back, it was no their private secret. "So, any jobs?" Wiley asked.

"Yeah, we both got one. I work at the blacksmith forge. I start tomorrow morning, Victor is going to teach me the trade," Train said.

"Lynelle, instead of cooking feasts every night for this animal, you're just going to have to bring him the cow. I'm sorry he's so expensive," Jenos laid a hand on Lynelle's shoulder and bowed his head in regret to her. Lynelle rolled her eyes and brushed Jenos away with her hands.

"I'll manage, somehow," Lynelle said with a smile just to play along with Jenos' joke. Jenos smiled.

"Jenos is a bartender," Train said. "When he came out of there he nearly threw up behind a pile of trash. I could smell the place from where I was standing in the street. It was bad," Train explained.

"You have to work there?" Wiley asked as she looked at Jenos. Her eyes were sympathetic, but there was also a small part of her that thought he deserved it.

"Yes, they were the only place that would hire me. For the record, their standards are incredibly low," Jenos added as he sat down on the table. "Are you going to come watch me work?" Jenos asked as he batted his eyelashes at Wiley. "We are supposed to be a couple after all," Jenos added. Wiley gave him a flat look and shoved him off the table.

"Tables are for glasses, not asses," she chimed completely ignoring his question. Jenos sighed and stood up, leaning against a wall. "Unless you two don't mind eating flea and tick ridden rats, there's no dinner tonight. We're not going back to the church to eat."

"I would say go eat a few humans," Lynelle commented, "but I think I would rather eat the rats that undoubtedly have the Black Plague. What to do in the mean time?" Lynelle asked.

"There's only one thing to do," Jenos said as he moved toward Wiley. Wiley raised an eyebrow and grabbed the curtain behind her. "That's have s-" Wiley ripped off a piece of the curtain and shoved it into Jenos' face when he took a step toward her.

"That's clean," Wiley corrected. Lynelle snorted and Train chuckled.

"Jenos, you walked right into that one. Quite literally actually," Train added. Lynelle nodded her head as her shoulder shook from trying not to laugh. Jenos spit the curtain out of his mouth and sighed. Wiley moved past him and upstairs, undoubtedly that's where she was going to start the cleaning.

"Jenos can clean the basement," Wiley called from the top of the stairs. Lynelle pointed toward a door in the kitchen and Jenos stopped.

"I can't," Jenos said in a near whisper.

"Right, the spiders," Train said. "I'll do it." Train grabbed the rag that was once part of the curtain and disappeared into the basement.

"You take the kitchen and I'll get the porch outside." Lynelle walked off, leaving Jenos in the kitchen. She opened the door and stepped out, then closed the door behind her. Once outside Lynelle looked around the porch. It was a simple porch with nothing on it. From the slope of the boards Lynelle could tell that at one point the porch had been used quite a bit. She grabbed the broom from where it had been put earlier and started sweeping leaves and pine needles off into the small yard. When the porch floor was clean Lynelle turned her attention to the roof. Large cobwebs and spider webs hung across corners. There were a few times when Lynelle had to step way back, away from the webs in order to make sure that the spiders didn't get into her hair. She made short work on the webs and then went back inside. Jenos was washing dishes.

Jenos didn't hear Lynelle come in, he was too engrossed in what he was doing. There really hadn't been much to do in the kitchen. He had to scrub the stove a bit, but that really had been in. When Jenos had opened the dish cupboards what he saw made his eye twitch. He could stand a certain amount of mess, but what was in the cupboard was downright disgusting. There was rat poop everywhere, and there were even a few rats that had died in there. Jenos took off his shirt and grabbed the rats with it. He threw them out the window and then took all the dishes out of the cupboard and threw them into the sink.

He worked diligently, carefully scraping everything that didn't belong on the plates off, and then setting them out to dry on the counter, which, Lynelle noted, he had also cleaned. In order not to disturb him, Lynelle quickly walked to the stairs and them up them. When she got upstairs Wiley was ripping the curtains down and tossing them onto the floor.

"What are you doing?" Lynelle asked.

"They're ruined, nothing more than rags," Wiley answered. "We don't need them right now, not in the summer months. By the time winter rolls around, if we're still here, we'll have more than enough money to replace them, in both houses." Wiley pulled on another curtain and ripped it down. "We can rip these to pieces and use them as rags. Same with most of the sheets." Lynelle took the hint and started ripping the curtains up. Sometimes Lynelle would come across old webs, but she would rub them on the windowsill to get them off the soon to be rags.

"Why do you think he does that?" Lynelle asked. Wiley looked at Lynelle. "Jenos, why do you think he hits on you like he does?" Wiley shrugged.

"I don't know," Wiley answered. "I'm sure it's got something to do with his past, but there's no point in trying to pry it out of him. He'll just close right up and hide until we stop asking questions. If there's something that he needs to tell us, he will. We are all a long way from revealing all our secrets." Wiley added. Lynelle nodded, she understood, but she couldn't help but wonder what was going on in his head.

Train stood on the stairs and he looked around in the basement, there was no light aside from the small amount small windows around his head let in. It was dreary and damp, and he knew that there were spiders everywhere. Train walked around, keeping his head low and made sure that there was nothing important in the basement. Instead of cleaning it like he should have been, Train took a deep breath and let out a large jet of flame from his mouth. The spiders incinerated, the webs simple disappeared and the damp and moistness of the basement decreased. Once he was sure that every part of the basement was free of creepy crawlies, Train turned around and walked back up the stairs.

When he came out into the kitchen he saw Jenos working hard to remove stains from porcelain plates.

"You're washing what looks to be poop from the plates," Train commented. Jenos looked at him and nodded.

"There were dead rats and anything else you can think of covering all of the plates. I figured I should wash them before we ate off of them. No one wants to get the Black Plague." Train nodded his agreement. "Hows the basement look?" Jenos asked. Train smiled at Jenos.

"Clean, and completely free of any creepy crawlies that might have been down there."

"That was fast," Jenos said as he set the now clean plate down on the counter beside him. "What did you do?"

"I breathed fire. Everything died; I think that's the most sanitary place in the house now." Jenos stopped washing and turned to look at Train. "What?"

"Dry the plates," Jenos said as he pointed at the plates while digging around in the sink for another one. Train sighed and began to breathe small jets of flame across the plates so that they dried faster.

"Jenos," Wiley said as she came down the stairs. She stopped when she saw him in the kitchen cleaning out the cupboards. "Come on, it's time for you to go to work," Wiley said. "Train can take over."

"What? Why can't you?" Train asked.

"I'm going with Jenos," Wiley answered. Jenos stopped scrubbing away and looked, in surprise, at Wiley. "Did you honestly think that I would let you go and endure such a horrible smell by yourself? I want to see your face. Now let's go." Wiley started for the door and Jenos jumped after her. She stopped and looked at Jenos again, he was shirtless. "Don't you want your shirt?"

"No," Jenos answered immediately. "Not after what I touched with it. It can be used as a rag." With that, Jenos walked in front of Wiley and led the way down the street and then into town to where the bar was.

By the time Jenos got there the place was starting to fill up. He quickly moved through the crowd, carefully not touching anyone, and made his way behind the bar. The bartend didn't look happy, but he moved away from the bar and let Jenos do his job. Without a word of warning about anything, the bartend disappeared into the kitchen to help with food. Wiley shoved someone off a seat, someone who was drunk enough to think that they had fallen, and sat down in the corner to watch and make sure that no one did anything stupid.

As the night dragged on, Jenos slowly opened up. He flirted with every woman, and told dumb jokes that made no sense to the drunken men. After a while the men moved to tables in order to play card games and gamble, while the women crowded in around the bar. From her connection with Jenos, she knew what was going on. She didn't like it. Jenos was her dragon, her partner, her fake husband or boyfriend, or whatever it was that he was pretending to be. They should not be doing this. He should not be instigating.

"Hey, handsome," one woman said. "Why don't you call your boss outta the kitchen and come with me up to my room. I can make your night worthwhile." She waggled her eyebrows at him, finally crossing the line. Wiley stood up and walked over. She brushed her hand against the woman's clothing and then put her hands on the bar. Wiley went unnoticed by the woman who only had eyes for Jenos. Wiley sent a mental word to Jenos, who outwardly cringed. After a few seconds the bar crumbled beneath the woman, pitching her forward and into the bar. Her head hit hard and ricocheted before she finally hit the ground. There was blood coming from a large wound on her forehead, but the woman was still conscious. Wiley bent down and touched the tip of her finger to the woman's clothing and the woman's clothing fell away into dust.

Realizing what had happened, the men turned to look and much to their pleasure, they saw a naked woman.

"Wiley, what the hell are you doing!" Jenos growled as he handed another woman a towel to stem the bleeding. Wiley crossed her arms over her chest and fixed Jenos with her orange eyes.

"You are my dragon, my partner," Wiley hissed quietly, just loud enough for him to hear. "I will not have some cheap whore hitting on you. There was a line, and she crossed it. She crossed it and never even thought about what she might be doing. You, you led her on, you are the cause of this."

"Wiley," Jenos said as he pulled her away and hid her in the corner in the darker shadows. "I was hitting on women because of the tips. I also hear gossip, and since we're hiding, I figure the more gossip I know, the safe that we'll be. There is a reason that I do what I do. Now go home before someone realizes that you're here." Jenos turned his attention back to the woman to was sobbing and crying, with a man's jacket wrapped around her. He saw several men try to grab onto the woman, but the small ring of people who were helping prevented the drunken men from touching the woman.

Doing as she was told, Wiley left the bar and went home. She felt appalled at what she did. At that moment in time there had only been two things that she knew. One was that her partner for life was hitting on women all over the place and they liked it, and two, that one woman offered to bed him. Wiley hadn't intended on using her demon magic unless she had to, but her temper and jealousy had gotten out of hand and she had used her demon magic. Wiley hung her head as she walked through the alleyways. When she saw Jenos next, she would have to apologize.

Disclaimer: I don't own Black Cat. Lynelle is © to BlackCatTrain, and Wiley is © to me.


	8. Chapter 8

Lynelle saw Wiley trudge home. She was walking slightly slouched and it looked like she had been crying. Instead of coming to Lynelle's house, Wiley walked into her house and disappeared. No lights came on, which was something that Lynelle hadn't expected. Normally Wiley liked to stay up late and go to sleep after everyone else went to bed.

"Train, I think there's something wrong with Wiley." Lynelle came away from the window and looked at Train. He was sitting at the table looking bored. There really wasn't much anything to do now that they had been cleaning for a while and the house was as clean as it was never going to get without replacing everything.

"Why do you say that?" Train asked. He looked slightly less bored, but he was still bored. Lynelle looked worriedly out the window, hoping that a light had come on while she hadn't been looking. None did. Lynelle looked back to Train and sat down opposite him at the table. She put her elbows on the table and rested her chin in her hands.

"Normally Wiley won't go to sleep until everyone is asleep. The lights in her house are off and none have come on. Not to mention she wasn't walking home, she was trudging, Wiley never trudges unless she has to, or she's really upset," Lynelle explained.

"So that leaves one question to ask," Train said. "What are you doing here and not over there comforting her?" Lynelle smiled at him and then raced out the door, across the two tiny lawns and then into Wiley's house. Train rolled his eyes and walked upstairs. He needed to get to sleep if he was going to be any help to the blacksmith.

Lynelle made a small ball of flame hover over her hand and walked carefully through the house. The house at least in decent shape on the inside, she had been worried that it looked like the outside with rotting boards and moss growing everywhere. Lynelle had seen in some places that there were mushrooms growing from cracks in the wood.

"Wiley?" Lynelle asked as she walked through the house, carefully avoiding anything. After looking around the first flood, Lynelle saw that Wiley wasn't there. She moved up to the second floor and nearly killed herself. There were stairs missing, and in some places just pieces of stairs were missing. When they hid in the shadows of the step above them, they were hard to make out and Lynelle had nearly stepped in one. After a few minutes of walking carefully up the stairs, Lynelle finally came to the second floor and saw that only one door was open.

Lynelle carried the flame with her as she moved across the squeaking floor. It was dark, and no light from outside was making it into the room. Lynelle looked into the room and saw Wiley sitting on the floor with her knees pulled up to her chest.

"Wiley, what's wrong?" Lynelle asked. She'd never seen her friend like this, even when she had ended up talking about her parents, or at least the people who had raised her. Wiley didn't answer. Lynelle moved closer to Wiley and made her little ball of light hover above their heads to illuminate more floor space. "Wiley, come on, you know that you can tell me anything," Lynelle prompted.

"I did something really stupid," Wiley answered. Her voice quivered a bit, but it was barely noticeable. Lynelle sat down next to Wiley and looked at her friend. This was the first time that Wiley had ever acted like this in front of Lynelle.

"What happened?"

"I went with Jenos, and for a while everything was fine. It was when the women started hitting on him, and he was hitting on them back that it started getting bad. I expected him to hit on them, but the women were drunk and we all know how people act when they're drunk. It's like they're a different person. I was getting annoying, angry that he was allowing them to do that to him and he was doing it back, especially when I was right there. Eventually a woman, fat, obviously a whore, thick makeup all over her face, and a short skirt that should not have been that short on her, asked Jenos to come up to her room to make his night worthwhile. That was it. She crossed a line that she shouldn't of and I snapped. After I hurt and humiliated the woman Jenos pulled me aside and explained what he was doing. He was hitting on the women because they tipped better. I should have seen it. I just didn't want some random woman to bed him, nor did I want those women to hit on him. He's my dragon, my partner. No one should touch him, no one that I don't know or trust. But I know that sometimes rules have to be broken, exceptions made. Even so I acted irrationally and injured a woman in my jealousy. I'm afraid I might have made Jenos lose his job. I shouldn't have acted that way, I'm a dragon rider, I should be above such things." Lynelle laughed and shook her head at Wiley.

"Wiley, we've been dragon riders for three days. We haven't even been trained, and you're trying to act like you've been a dragon rider for years. Wiley, it takes time to grow into a dragon rider. Now that you've made this mistake you can learn from it. Unfortunately we're going to have to do a lot of things that we're not comfortable with for a while. At least until we know where we need to go. Don't be so hard on yourself; I'm sure that Jenos will still have his job. However I don't think that women will be as willing to flirt with him as they were before. I have a feeling that Jenos will persevere though. When he comes home you can talk about it with him. In the mean time why not come over and visit with Train and I?" Wiley shook her head.

"No, I'm going to get some sleep. I'm sure Jenos will come over there when he gets home. Thank you," Wiley added as she smiled at Lynelle before moving up to the bed. It had been stripped and the mattress obviously flipped over. Lynelle didn't blame her. After Wiley was settled, Lynelle left. "Be careful on the stairs, I'm afraid that they're not very safe anymore." Lynelle caught the 'anymore' and looked at Wiley. What did she mean by that? Shrugging it off, Lynelle once more walked the stairs. It took her less time than it had before, mostly because she was able to slide down the railing.

Lynelle made it to her house and saw that Train had really gone to sleep. Alone and having nothing to do, Lynelle walked up the stairs and crawled into a bed in the children's room. Slowly sleep over took her and she was in a deep slumber.

Jenos groaned as he worked out the knot between his shoulders. He was sweeping up the really old hay and moving the partly new hay to cover the wet spots. While he'd been working Jenos realized what had caused the horrible odor that he had smelled earlier. Instead of having a bathroom close to the bar, people just went into the corners of the bar, whether they were drunk or not. Sometimes the whores and the men with them didn't even bother to get a room, he just dominated the woman in the bar while others watched. Jenos had made sure to attend to his duties and ignore everything but the drinks people were ordering. In tips he'd made quite a bit, however after Wile had made a scene the tips hadn't been as big.

"Tomorrow, same time," the bar owner said as he walked back into the kitchen and threw Jenos' salary at him. Jenos caught it and walked out of the bar. Once Jenos looked down he realized how little he actually made. No doubt that part of it had been taken away in order to repair the bar before the next night. Jenos sighed and moved through the city. It was starting to wake up, and Jenos was going home to go to bed.

As he walked his mind drifted to Wiley. He knew that she was upset, he was sure that she cried a couple of times. There had been nothing that he could do about it. He needed the job, they needed the money, therefore he had to stay at the bar and work through the night into the morning. He didn't like it, in fact he hated it. He really hated it. He was sure after he talked to Wiley everything would be okay.

Jenos picked up the pace and made it back to the house before everyone was on the streets again. He opened the door and headed to the stairs, but stopped when he got to them. He was puzzled. The last time he'd been in the house there had been perfectly fine stairs, stairs he could walk on and not have to worry about falling through. Now they were rotting and falling away in pieces.

"I'm too tired for this," Jenos muttered. Instead of trying to tread the dangerous stairs, Jenos looked at the table and flopped, gently, down onto the table. His back cracked a few times as it settled into place, and soon enough Jenos was asleep, money still in hand.

Wiley heard the door downstairs open and she perked up. After a minute or so she heard Jenos mutter. She jumped off the bed and slid down the railing. Jenos was lying on the table, already asleep. Wiley sighed and moved over to him as quietly as she could manage. Carefully she pulled the money from his hand and set it down on the kitchen counter, after that she pulled the blanket off her shoulders. She'd found one tucked away into a trunk, on the very bottom that hadn't been eaten or touched by time. Wiley gently laid the blanket over Jenos and moved away. He was sound asleep.

"Good night, Jenos," Wiley said. Instead of going back upstairs she walked out of the house and headed toward the church. She figured she might as well start working and get it over with before the sun came up and started making the town hot. The walk was quiet, but slowly became louder as people left their houses and went to work and to the market in order to get food. Wiley was the only person walking alone, through the back alleys and not the main streets.

The church looked even worse than it did before. The stone was dirty, and the priests that were walking around outside the church, making criminals do their community service, looked mean and cruel. Wiley wasn't one for religion, but she knew that this was not how a church was supposed to behave. This seemed more like a prison.

"Ah, there is one of our new recruits for the graveyard. Right this way." It was the priest from the day before who had shown them to the houses. "How are the houses?" Wiley heard him snicker, but didn't glare at the man like she wanted to. She played the part of the subservient woman she was supposed to be.

"They are fine," Wiley answered. "We are grateful that you and your church have allowed us to live in them. Thank you." The priest nodded and continued leading Wiley to the graveyard.

"You are to cut the grass, after you, I should say, if you finish that, you are to weed. If you finish that you are to clean the tombstones. When your friend comes along she will assist you. You are finished when the sun goes down. There is nothing like a hard day's work to repay what you owe. I will check up on you later. If you are seen leaving the grounds money will be added to your debt. The tools are in that shed." With a vague wave of his hand he motioned toward the shed. Wiley bowed her thanks and moved toward the shed.

She hadn't been there more than five minutes and she knew that she hated this man. It was that kind of person, a person who thought that they were better than everyone that made the world what it was. After a deep sigh Wiley pulled open the shed door and cringed. Nothing in the shed had been touched in what seemed like years. There were spiders among other bugs everywhere. She'd seen enough spiders and bugs to last her a life time in the last few days. Wiley grabbed the sickle and then banged it against the wall a few times to be sure that all the spiders were off it. Before she started using it, Wiley wiped it off in the grass that she had to cut and made sure that there were absolutely no bugs on it.

The work of cutting the grass went slowly. She couldn't believe how high the grass was in spots. It didn't help that the ground wasn't even. There were places where it caved inward, telling Wiley where the coffins had decayed. She did her best to cut the grass a uniform length in one go, but she knew that she was going to have to back over it. She wished Lynelle would get there sooner. It was one thing to work alone and quite another to work with someone to talk to. Wiley pushed the thoughts of talking to someone out of her mind. No use in teasing herself.

Lynelle rushed through the streets. She'd slept later than she meant to and she already knew that Wiley was at the church. It was around 10 in the morning. Wiley would have gotten up before the sun rose no matter what.

"There it is," Lynelle breathed. She stopped running and caught her breath before she moved over to the church. It wouldn't do to come upon the place breathless, she needed her wits about her in the place.

"Your friend has been working for hours already," the priest commented when she came into his view. "Where have you been? No matter, you can leave and go about your business. There is no need to have both of you here today. I will tell your friend that she has to do what she can today." Before Lynelle could get a word in edgewise the priest was walking off, leaving Lynelle standing there. She couldn't go against the priest's orders and go help Wiley that would mean she was a target for him to act out on. Since she wasn't completely human and no one else with her was even remotely human, Lynelle didn't want to chance incurring the wrath of the church.

"I might as well go visit Train. I have to look at the prices of things anyway." Lynelle walked toward the blacksmith's shop and occasionally stopped to look at things in shops. Everything seemed fairly priced, but considering that Lynelle didn't know the currency, she was just guessing. By the time Lynelle managed to get to the blacksmith's shop the streets were crowded and she was sweating. The press of bodies all around was just making the sun worse. Lynelle looked at the shop and saw Train. His shirt was off, sweat was running down his body in small rivers, the large hammer that he wielded effortlessly added to the allure that he was throwing off. Before Train caught her staring Lynelle looked away and composed herself.

Lynelle moved across the street, through the thick crowd of people, mostly women, huddling around the blacksmith's shop. The closer Lynelle got the more women she saw. She couldn't help but have a sense of jealously creep into her skin. Train was hers, her partner anyway, they shouldn't have been staring. Trying to make sure that she didn't do anything stupid, Lynelle tried her best to ignore the feeling.

"Oh my," a woman commented. "You are so strong, and you say that you've just started your training to become a blacksmith today?" Lynelle felt the feeling rise up with a vengeance. Once again she pushed the feeling to the side and waited until the conversation was over between them before Lynelle interjected.

"That's right, ma'am," Train answered. The woman giggled.

"Well color me impressed. I'm afraid that I have to ask, are you in a relationship?" That crossed a line.

"I'm afraid that he is," Lynelle hissed as she moved to stand between and the woman. The woman, in order not to be shoved from her feet, moved back a few paces. "He's in a relationship with me, and I would greatly appreciate it if you left him alone so he could do his job." Lynelle knew that she wasn't acting rationally, but she didn't care. Train was hers, in at least one way. The woman's face scrunched up, she obviously didn't like being told something that went against what she wanted. "If you should like to argue over this, than I shall be forced to take action against you, and I'm afraid that I will wipe the floor with you, hands down. Back. Off." With a huff and a quick turn the woman stormed off down the street, taking a small posse with her.

"Lynelle," Train said. Lynelle turned to him and smiled sweetly.

"Yes, dear?" Lynelle asked. Train sighed and shook his head but smiled anyway. "I'm sorry, you know that you're in a relationship with me, I'll not have anyone hitting on you. Now you get back to work, I don't want to keep you from it like those women did. Work hard, make lots of money," Lynelle added with a smile before heading home again. As she walked away she heard loud slaps. Lynelle could imagine that the men were clapping Train on the back for having a strong woman who stood up for her man. Lynelle chuckled as she walked away. If only they knew what kind of relationship we are actually in, Lynelle thought to herself.

Disclaimer: I don't own Black Cat. Lynelle is © to BlackCatTrain. Wiley is © to me.


	9. Chapter 9

The area that Wiley walked through was dark and damp. She knew that mold was growing in places, and was careful to stay away from the edge of the wall. Mold wasn't normally dangerous, but as soon as it got into your lungs, even demons and the like had a hard time getting over it. Occasionally Wiley stepped in a puddle and got her feet wet, but she didn't mind it. It was no worse than stepping in a puddle outside, aside from the slightly stagnant smell that permeated through the corridor.

This obviously wasn't a well used area of the church, but that suited Wiley just fine. She was able to let her eyes shine brightly for the first time in a long time. She knew that anyone who decided to walk down this hall would probably faint from her eyes, but that was a chance that she was willing to take.

It took her five minutes to reach the end of the corridor. It was a simple matter to follow the scents in order to get to the main part of the church, specifically the bed chambers. If there was anything that the priest was hiding, it would be in one of two places. It would either be in his room, the place where Wiley was headed now, or it would be on his person. She hoped it was the former, but she knew that there was a chance it wasn't going to be in his room.

His scent wasn't a smell that Wiley enjoyed. It smelled of foul body odor, like he never washed, and corruption. His room was at the end of a hallway that no other priest used for their chambers. Wiley looked around before darting down the hallway in a blur of motion. She listened outside the door for precious minutes to make sure that he or anyone else wasn't in the room. There were no sounds, the room was completely silent.

The door pushed open easily, making a few creaking noises on the hinges. She cringed at the noise, which seemed much louder in the silence, and slipped inside.

The room was larger than she would have expected, and the furniture was plusher than she would have thought. The bed was covered with silk linens, the pillows were huge and filled with goose down, the chairs that were scattered across the room were padded, unlike most of the chairs that priests sat in. There was also a large oak desk on the far wall. That was where anything incriminating was likely to be stored. Well, either in that desk or underneath his incredibly huge pillows.

Knowing that most people tended to hide things in a false bottom drawer, or in a locked one, Wiley moved over to the desk and started pulling open drawers. The drawers that came free easily Wiley didn't spend much time in. No one in their right mind would be okay with leaving their important and incriminating documents in a drawer that would easily be opened. When she got to the bottom drawer, the drawer stuck fast.

"Jackpot," Wiley whispered as she yanked open the drawer with one swift yank. The noise the drawer made in protest was loud, but at this point, Wiley would take her chances. It was time to prove this priest wasn't so priestly after all. Criminals liked to keep records of past deeds, sometimes they wrote them down, other times they saved clippings from a paper or something and held onto the memories on the paper for as long as they could.

The drawer was filled with paper. Wiley pulled them out and looked through. They were reports of being sexually assaulted by the priest, others were the priest swindled money away in order to use it for the "church" and even more on hiring people to kill others. Wiley had known that this man was a scum bag, but now she knew the extent of it.

"Well, well, well," Wiley froze and turned to the voice, "if it isn't the missing companion. I have to admit, I didn't believe for a moment that you were actually dead. I told those boys that if they were able to kill you, that they should come and get me at once. Since they never showed I didn't think that they were dead. What I would like to know, is how in the world did you get in here?" The priest was wearing his robe, however the hood was down, displaying him in his full glory.

His hair was covered in a sheen of grease, and she could smell his breath from where she was standing. His clothes were perfect, they were clean and she could could see the perfect creases in the robe. She had a sneaking suspicion that the robe wasn't his and he took it from someone else. It wouldn't have surprised her.

"Frankly, I don't want to tell you," Wiley answered. Suddenly it hit her. If he was here, that meant that he had Lynelle. "Where is Lynelle?" Wiley threw the papers onto the desk and put her full attention on him. He snickered then, just egging her on. "Answer me, where is Lynelle?"

"Somewhere safe," he answered. "Somewhere where you or your friends can't get to her. Don't worry, I'll take good care of her." Wiley hissed at him.

"You will not touch her! I know what you are. You're a slime bag who likes to get his jollies off by raping women and using this esteemed church to cover it up. You use donations that people make to pay off hitmen to kill people who come close to finding you out. I've seen your kind before," Wiley growled at him as she took a menacing step forward. "Once they're found out, the never last for long."

"It doesn't matter because you're not going to make it out of here alive. Trust me." He stepped out of the room and shut the door. Wiley heard his feet pounding the hard floor outside the room. He must have thought that she was slow, or that her being a woman was something that made her weak.

"It doesn't even matter, I'll have reinforcements here soon enough," Wiley muttered. _Jenos,_ Wiley said in her head after she had grabbed onto the bond between her and her dragon. _Lynelle has been kidnapped by the priest. He must have figured out that the Train she was with was an illusion. Get you and Train back here as soon as possible. Don't be in dragon form, that'll scare people._ Wiley let the bond slip through her mental fingers before she kicked down the door and ran through the corridors after him. She used her nose to follow his scent. He was heading toward there Lynelle had entered the building.

His scent brought her to the front of the church. For a disgusting maggot he sure could run. Wiley opened the doors and stepped through.

"NOW!" Wiley's eyes widened.

Jenos's head snapped up. He'd gotten Wiley's message.

"Train, the priest has Lynelle," Jenos commented. Train looked at Jenos, his golden eyes were hard, but there was a worried look deep in them. "Listen to me, we can't just go storming in there in our dragon forms. In the end we'll have to kill innocent people to get out of there. I know that getting Lynelle back is everything to you, but we have to be smart about it, especially because Wiley is there as well." Train nodded his large dragon head.

"Jenos, we have to get there soon, if they die, we die. We'll have to get as close as we can before we-" Jenos suddenly howled in pain. "What's happening?"

"Wiley," Jenos whispered. "There is no innocent person in this," Jenos groaned. "Let's go Train," Jenos said. Jenos took a few steps before leaping into the air. Train followed him.

The air was warm beneath their wings as they flew through the air. It smelled fresh, something that they hadn't smelled in a long time, and the ground underneath them was falling away by the mile. There was no time for them to make sure that no one could see them. Their riders were in danger, which was worse than their own lives.

"If we keep flying at this speed, we're never going to be able to stop, Jenos!" Train yelled above the wind in their ears. "We're going to crash into something and kill ourselves!"

"No," Jenos said. "We'll slow down when we get closer, we need to make up all the time that we can. I have a feeling that Lynelle is drugged or unconscious."

"Why wouldn't I know that?" Train asked.

"Compared to bonds of the dragon riders who came before us, we're still new at this. We've only known each other for a few days. We have to go back." Jenos looked at Train. He saw Train thinking about what he said.

"Let's s go then," Train said. Jenos nodded. After a few seconds, both dragon's took to the sky, ignoring the fact that they were visible for miles around.

Lynelle groaned as she opened her eyes. The last thing she remembered was taking a drink from the wine goblet that was offered. After that, she couldn't remember anything. There was a large, throbbing pain right between her eyes.

"Damn it," Lynelle muttered. "I must have been drugged." Lynelle looked around. She was in a stone room. The only light that there was, was coming from an old oil lantern. She room smelled of smoke and mildew. Lynelle reached for her magic, she could feel it sitting at the center of her being, but she couldn't reach it. At first panic laced through her mind, but she slowly realized it was probably because of the drugs in her system. She remembered that there were several drugs that inhibited the use of magic, they were normally used during a surgery when the magic would lash out and try to protect the unconscious body of the person in need of surgery.

"You're awake." Lynelle looked up and saw a face poking through the door at her. It was the priest that had taken an interest in her. "Where are your two male friends? Your female friend is currently...indisposed." The tone in which he spoke about Wiley made the hair on the back of Lynelle's neck stand on end.

"What did you do to Wiley?" Lynelle asked. He just smiled at her. "If Wiley is hurt, when I get out of here, I'm going to kill you."

"Tell me what that woman made you do. She obviously isn't human. No doubt that she beguiled you into being her friend, and then she used her demon abilities to make you do what she wanted. She's trying to take down the church, isn't she? She wants to let loose hell spawn on this town and start taking over the world." Lynelle stared at him through the small window in the door. She would have loved to strangle him, or make the door explode so that the splinters impaled him. Both options were out of the question at the moment. "I am trying to save your immortal soul, let me help you."

"Go to Hell," Lynelle growled.

"I see, this woman no doubt has corrupted you more than we realized. I will save you." The small window in the door closed, leaving Lynelle in the small room alone once more.

"Damn it! I need to get out of here," Lynelle muttered. She was free to move around the cell, but there wasn't much she could do considering she was just human. If she were an elf she would have been able to at least break the door down with the superior strength, if she were Wiley she could rot the door down, and if she were Train, she would just burn the door down. She was trapped, there was nothing that she could do until someone came and got her, or the drugs wore off so she could use her magic. There was nothing to do but wait.

Wiley was shaking. Pain was racing from her wound into all parts of her body. She knew that she had other wounds, but they were miniscule compared to the one that she was feeling. The moments leading up to when she had been injured kept running though her mind over and over again. The only other thought in her head beside the moments before being injured were that she couldn't believe how stupid she had been. She should have seen something like that coming.

A new noise drew her out of her thoughts and into the painful reality with which she was now faced. It was a plop, like water dripping into a pool. Wiley scanned the room, but saw no source of the noise. It wasn't until she looked down that she realized what it was. A wound on her shoulder was bleeding at a good pace.

"Wonderful," Wiley muttered. Her body had decided to focus on healing the life threatening injury, leaving her shoulder would to bleed. It was clotting, but not nearly as fast as she would have liked. Time was going to be of the essence, but there was nothing that she could do. Her magic was cut off from her because of her injuries, it was doing its best to heal her to prevent her from dying.

"I have discovered that you have your claws into that girl more than we suspected." Wiley looked up and saw the priest standing in the door way. He was holding a pitchfork in one hand with its butt on the ground. He didn't look happy.

"Oh?" Wiley asked. "Do tell, do tell," Wiley said. The priest ignored her taunt and walked into the room. There was no need to shut the door because Wiley couldn't escape. Her legs were useless at the current time, and she was hanging from the ceiling on old, rusty chains.

"Tell me what you did to her, so that I might save her from your corruption. If you do not, I'm afraid that the information will have to be tortured out of you. You should also give up your other friends. The entire town is on the lookout for them, there is no way that they're going to make it here to save you." Wiley laughed then. It was a loud amused laugh that quickly turned into a barking cough.

"You don't know my friends," Wiley said. A coppery taste filled her mouth. Once her mouth was full, Wiley spat the blood onto the priest, covering his face and part of his torso in her blood. Rage covered his face and filled his eyes. A few seconds later a new pain laced into the old and Wiley's head fell back as she let out a silent cry of pain. "You'll never catch them. They'll kill you, if I don't. You sorry son of a bitch," Wiley laughed. "You are awfully pathetic. You get others to do your dirty work, and you can probably only get it up with prostitutes who you restrain and beat. Your kind is the scum of the world. I hate your kind." Wiley laughed again.

"You bitch!" The pitch fork impaled her once more, across her already torn open stomach. She felt her guts ready to fall out, but she stopped them. Her magic created an invisible wall to keep her guts where they were supposed to be. "I will bleed you out, I will stab you with this over and over again until you stop moving. You will never leave this room. I will make sure of that."

"You may do what you want to this body, but you can rest assured that I will meet you in the land of the dead. I will stop you from reaching Hell to provide you with an even worse punishment than Satan himself can give you. You bloody priest, you will know pain when I through with you. For you," Wiley started, "I will gladly inherit all that my parents left behind when they came to this world. See you in the afterlife." Wiley laughed. The priest covered his ears at her laugh. It grated on his soul like she was moving a cheese grater against his skin.

Jenos could feel Wiley's life slipping away. She was growing weaker by the second. If he didn't get to her soon, she would die, and so would he. Panic and worry were pumping adrenaline through his veins like it was the only thing in them. He needed to get to her, he needed to save her.

"Jenos, I can feel Lynelle now," Train called over the rush of the wind. "She's pissed, and she's about to do something incredibly stupid."

"Well, Train," Jenos started. "So am I."

Disclaimer: I don't own Black Cat. Lynelle is © to BlackCatTrain. Wiley is © to me.


	10. Chapter 10

"I can't believe that someone of the church would try to have a woman raped and killed," Lynelle fumed as she stalked across the kitchen. Wiley hissed as her to lower her voice. "Sorry, it just makes me angry," Lynelle muttered.

"Technically he only wanted me killed," Wiley commented. "Apparently he views me as his biggest obstacle to get to you. If only he knew what Train and Jenos were," Wiley snorted she took a sip of water. Her hands were shaking from her shivering. She tried to hide the shaking cup. "It doesn't really matter if he tried to kill me or not. It does show, however, that he's been watching us. He knew when I wouldn't be here, and when I would be alone."

"That's creepy," Train muttered as he shivered. Lynelle nodded her head in grim agreement. "What are we going to do about it? Jenos and I have to leave and shift tomorrow; otherwise we'll be no use to you."

"You'll have to go during mass," Lynelle commented as she crossed her arms over her chest and a frown formed on her face. "That's the only time that no one will be watching the houses. That will also mean you'll have to get back before it's over. How long do you two need to stay in your dragon forms for?"

"A few hours," Train answered. Lynelle's frown deepened.

"As soon as you're out of human eyesight you'll have to change. Otherwise you won't have enough time to get to where you need to go and stay in your dragon form for the time that you need. We will definitely be cutting it close," Wiley added.

"Maybe you should leave as soon as Jenos gets back from work. You two can find a nice spot to relax and take a nap or something, and there's less chance for someone to see you coming back. Then you can get back during mass and sneak in the back. You two aren't full size, well, compared to most dragons you and Jenos are miniature, so you should be able to get pretty close to the town without people seeing you," Lynelle said.

"Hey! I'm the perfect size for a dragon!" Train crossed his arms over his chest and huffed. Lynelle looked him over and pointedly laughed before turning to look at Wiley.

"So what are we going to do about the priest and his failed murder attempt?" Lynelle asked. Wiley thought about it and smiled.

"Why don't we let him think that he killed me?" Wiley asked. "It would mean I don't have to do any work for the church, and he would be at a disadvantage. Oh, there is one other thing," Wiley added. "There are nulls in this village."

"Do you mean there's more than one?" Train asked, suddenly serious. Everyone knew what was null was, but they were exceedingly rare, normally there was maybe one person in a town.

"Yes, I do mean there is more than one. Those three men that tried to have their way with me? All three of them were a null, that's why they were able to get me pinned in the first place." Wiley unconsciously put a hand to the cut on her cheek which was almost healed. It wasn't often that she was injured. "I'm thinking that there is a family of nulls around here. In which case, we could have a problem. However, that would also explain why when they attacked my village when I was younger no one realized what was happening until it was too late."

"That would mean there would need to be a large number- Wait. Are you suggesting that there's a larger population of nulls?" Lynelle asked. Wiley nodded her head.

"Send out your magic as far as you can, tell me if you can sense anyone," Wiley said. Lynelle did as she was told. She sent her magic out in a radius as far as the church. According to her magic there was no one living in most of the houses in that area. Her eyes were wide and she looked at Wiley. "I felt the same thing," Wiley answered the unspoken question in Lynelle's eyes. "This town is almost entirely full of nulls."

"How can that be?"

"Simple, if one parent is a null, all their children inherit that trait. All these people, or at least most of them, are related in some way. Those few people who aren't nulls have moved here from somewhere else. Their children are nulls as well. Eventually the entire town will be completely null. No doubt that's why these people were chosen to attack my village." There was a hint of hatred in Wiley's voice. That little bit of malice from her childhood would never go away until Creed, the mastermind behind it all was dead.

"What are we going to do about it? We can't kill them all in their sleep," Train said.

"There's nothing that we can do about it. Unless they attack us directly, like what happened with Wiley tonight, these people have done nothing wrong. They have been misguided because of their beliefs. Pondering about this doesn't really matter tonight," Lynelle added. When Jenos gets home you and him can go and sleep during mass. I will take care of Train's illusion and cover for Wiley and Jenos. What are you going to do?" Lynelle asked Wiley. Wiley smiled.

"I'm going to snoop of course. What else is a ghost going to do?" A wicked smile came across Wiley's face as she stood up. "I'll tell Jenos the plan when he gets home. In the mean time, get some sleep," Wiley said. She walked from Lynelle's house. Lynelle and Train headed upstairs to their separate bedrooms and quickly fell asleep.

Jenos listened as people became loose lipped from the beer they were drinking Jenos had long ago vowed never to drink the beer. He would pour it from himself and turn around; while he had been turned around Jenos had switched the full pint with an empty one and pretended to drink it on gulp. It wouldn't be good to get drunk on the job, and the women would have felt offended. When they weren't looking and someone ordered another drink, he would take their money and give them the pint that he hadn't drank.

"I heard my boys got a job from God himself today," a woman said, she was trying to brag to higher class women, and her boys were apparently the only thing that he had over them. "A priest came to them today and told them that they had to take care of a woman. She was a menace and tricking a good woman into being her friend. The only way to stop the spread of her corruption was to kill her. My boys were picked, by God to do that job." Jenos felt sick, how could someone be bragging about her boys killing someone? "The woman was no doubt killed in an alley not far from here as she was on her way home tonight. My boys are going to go to Heaven; the Devil will never have their souls!" Her bragging finished the woman downed the last of her pint; she nearly fell over in the process.

Jenos couldn't help but feel a creeping feeling over his skin. There was just something that told him this woman had been talking about Wiley. He stopped working just for a second to check his bond with her. She was alive and well. That mean that woman's children were killed by her. In the short time that he'd known Wiley, Jenos had realized that Wiley wouldn't take shit from anyone. If someone tried to kill her, she would kill them first, it was just the way it worked with her.

"Barkeep! Another for my friends!" Jenos nodded and looked down the bar at who had spoken. It was company policy to collect the money first. Apparently the owner had been cheated out of his money one too many times. Jenos knew why, he didn't feel that the beer was worth as much as the man was charging. Jenos stopped when he saw who was with the man. It was the priest. The priest was refusing drinks, but that was okay with the other two men, they were sharing the priest's drink.

"What a surprise to see you here," the priest said. "I wasn't aware that you ended up working in a bar. I suppose that it is the perfect place for you, especially considering that you are nothing but scum anyway." Jenos ignored the priest and left the table. He poured the drinks and dished them out to each of the men at the table.

"It is just a job," Jenos said. "Since you would let no one but the women work at the church I took the first job that I could. It's honest work."

"Is it? I saw what you did when the women bought you drinks. Do you think you're clever for trading out a full glass for an empty one and pretending you're drinking? On top of that, you sold it to another man at the other end of the bar, essentially charging for a drink twice. So tell me, is it honest business?" Jenos felt the fire burning in his stomach. It would be a small matter to release the flame that was burning in his stomach and set the man on fire. That would draw attention to him and others; it wasn't something that he was going to risk.

"Have a nice night," Jenos commented coldly. He turned and walked away; from then on the waitress took the drinks and collected the money from that table. Jenos wanted nothing to do with that priest. He was everywhere. There were no doubts in his mind that he had been the one to arrange the attack on Wiley.

Slowly the night dragged on, it seemed as if it would never end. At three in the morning the bar closed and kicked the few people who didn't want to leave out. Jenos collected his tips, and wage and left to go home. For a moment as he walked through the alley to home, he felt sorry for the woman who would soon realize that her sons weren't coming back. The moment passed when he remembered that she was happy that her boys were becoming murderers. It was just what she deserved.

Jenos opened the door to the house and sighed. It was time for bed, which he was thankful for. He felt less tired than he had the night before, but he was still exhausted.

"Jenos," Wiley said from the doorway of a room. Her form was dark, the only thing that he saw where eyes, which was glowing. "You and Train are leaving to change into your dragon forms. Train told us that you needed to change otherwise you won't be able to change back. You'll have to come back during mass and keep it low profile. You are not going to be there because you are grieving for my death, and Lynelle is going to make an illusion of Train."

"So it was you that this woman's three boys were sent to kill. What did you do with them?" Jenos asked. "I checked a few alleys on my way home, there was nothing in them," Jenos added.

"Let's just say that they rotted away to nothing," Wiley added with a snicker. "Go wake Train up and you two head out. The longer you stay in your dragon forms, the better right?" Wiley asked. Jenos nodded. "Get going, mass starts at dawn, you need to get back before 9 or so. That'll give you at least five hours to be in dragon form."

"Alright," Jenos said. He turned from Wiley and walked back down the stairs that still hadn't been fixed. He quickly and quietly crossed the two yards and disappeared into the house. He followed his nose to find Train sleeping soundly in a bed across the hall from where Lynelle was sleeping. "Train, wake up," Jenos ordered. Train didn't move. "Fine." Jenos grabbed the blanket Train was sleeping on top of and pulled it up. Train might have been a dragon, but even he was no match for the amazing force that is gravity. Train rolled down the blanket and hit the ground hard.

"Ow! What the hell!" Train growled as he sat up and glared at Jenos who was standing on the other side of the bed smiling smugly. "Oh, it's you," Train muttered. He got off the floor and dusted himself off. "I take it Wiley explained everything to you?" Jenos nodded. "Good that means that I don't have to and we can just get going." As quietly as they could manage the boys slipped out of the house and into the deep night. The lanterns did little to keep the darkness away.

Once away from the houses Train and Jenos shifted. Their bones creaked and groaned as they rearranged themselves, their organs grew in size and moved from their human positions and into their proper places in a dragon's body. Teeth grew to be three times the size of their human counter parts, nails extended until they were nothing but black claws that gouged the earth. They looked every bit imposing dragons that could pull you limb from limb and not even notice the blood splatter along their glinting scales.

They shared a look for a moment and bounded into the open fields that lay behind the houses. They were careful not to dig their claws into the dirt as they went, but in their excitement to be free of the small human forms, they ended up being less cautious than they should have been. Once they were a good distance away both dragons effortlessly lifted into the sky with two beats of their wings. They quickly covered a great distance on the air.

Lynelle had heard Train fall out of bed and the two leave. There were still a few hours before dawn, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to sleep. There was too much resting on what went down during mass. Jenos and Train had to make it back during day without being seen, Wiley had to sneak into the church, find the priest's chambers and see if there was anything that they could use against him, and she also had to get out again. She could make people just fall into a pile of dust, but eventually there would be too many people for her to attack should they realize that she was the intruder, or they realized what she was.

Lynelle knew that nothing would go wrong; at least she had to believe that nothing would go wrong. If one thing went wrong and they all were connected that would mean disaster, and they couldn't use magic in order to attack these people. While there were a few people that magic would work on, the majority of them were nulls, meaning magic wouldn't touch them. Essentially magic didn't exist to them, and they didn't exist to magic. Wiley's demon magic worked, but that was just using their own energy against them, not actual magic.

Instead of trying to fall asleep, Lynelle threw off the covers and walked downstairs. She sent a wave of magic out into the lanterns hanging around the room. They lit up all at once, spreading their light across the floor. The glow was soft, but compared to the darkness that she had been standing before, the light was bright. Her eyes narrowed in order to adjust and then she grabbed from bread from the basket the priest had given her. While she waited for the sun to come up she nibbled on the bread.

Slowly time moved on. Eventually the sky lightened and the sun was starting to rise. Lynelle focused her magic and slowly an illusion of Train took form. There were minor discrepancies in the way Train looked, and she had almost none of his mannerisms down, but considering that they were going to be in church and just listening to someone speak, she didn't figure that it really mattered.

"It looks like him," Wiley commented as she snuck in through the back door of the house. She had changed her clothes. Instead of wearing the blouse and a skirt, she was wearing a hooded grey robe, like the priest's wore. "Just make sure that it doesn't stay too abnormally still, people tend notice and they can't help but feel like there is something wrong with the person."

"Noted," Lynelle said. "Don't you look like a God worshiping priest?" Lynelle asked as she looked Wiley over. "Keep your hood up and your head down. Also, try not to talk because you don't speak like they do. Pretend you're mute or something."

"I have taken a vow of silence," Wiley said. "You should head out. You don't want to be late for your sermon and cause any more suspicion than we already have. I'll follow you across the roof tops. Once you're inside the church and seating I'll make my move." Lynelle nodded and headed for the door. The illusion of Train followed her, clumsily at first, but slowly Lynelle was able to make it walk and actually have it look normal.

As Lynelle walked through the streets she felt the ever present eyes of Wiley on her. Wiley was never far from her, always close at hand should anything happen. She was hidden on the roof tops, keeping low and moving fast when she had to. Most people didn't even notice one another at this time in the morning, they all wanted to get to the sermon, hear it out, and pay their dues and leave to spend the rest of the day with their family. Lynelle could understand that. She had seen the way these people worked day after day. They deserved a break once in a while.

The church came into view and Lynelle stopped walking. She was nervous. What if someone inside the church knew that the Train with her was an illusion? What if someone could feel the tingle of magic in the air? Lynelle had made the illusion of Train as real as it could be, that was the only way to have the people of this town sees him. Lynelle knew that it didn't really matter if the people saw Train or not, the priest had to.

"Hello, Lynelle," the priest said. He glanced over at the illusion of Train is disgust and then looked back to Lynelle. Lynelle jumped in joy in her head when she realized that the priest wasn't a null. "There is a seat for you and your friend in the front pew. Where are your other friends?" He said the word friends with an undertone of hatred.

"I'm afraid that Wiley has been killed," Lynelle said as she looked down at the ground and hoped he was buying this. "Jenos is at home mourning her loss; he is completely distraught over her death. They were to be married, as soon as they were able. I'm afraid that he might kill himself to try to join her in death." Lynelle knew that it was pushing the story a little too hard, but she hoped that with the priest knowing he had successfully torn apart their group he would back off a little.

"Such a shame," the priest said with a cold smile. He obviously didn't mean it. "Come, the sermon is about to begin." Without another word Lynelle followed the priest into the church.

"There they go," Wiley said as she watched Lynelle, the illusion of Train, and the priest disappear into the large stone church. Once everyone was inside Wiley dropped down to the ground and padded her way to the back door. "Let's do a little snooping, shall we?" Wiley asked as she set her hands on the hinges. The rusted to dust under her touch and Wiley slipped inside.

Disclaimer: I don't own Black Cat. Lynelle is © to BlackCatTrain. Wiley is © to me.


	11. Chapter 11

The area that Wiley walked through was dark and damp. She knew that mold was growing in places, and was careful to stay away from the edge of the wall. Mold wasn't normally dangerous, but as soon as it got into your lungs, even demons and the like had a hard time getting over it. Occasionally Wiley stepped in a puddle and got her feet wet, but she didn't mind it. It was no worse than stepping in a puddle outside, aside from the slightly stagnant smell that permeated through the corridor.

This obviously wasn't a well used area of the church, but that suited Wiley just fine. She was able to let her eyes shine brightly for the first time in a long time. She knew that anyone who decided to walk down this hall would probably faint from her eyes, but that was a chance that she was willing to take.

It took her five minutes to reach the end of the corridor. It was a simple matter to follow the scents in order to get to the main part of the church, specifically the bed chambers. If there was anything that the priest was hiding, it would be in one of two places. It would either be in his room, the place where Wiley was headed now, or it would be on his person. She hoped it was the former, but she knew that there was a chance it wasn't going to be in his room.

His scent wasn't a smell that Wiley enjoyed. It smelled of foul body odor, like he never washed, and corruption. His room was at the end of a hallway that no other priest used for their chambers. Wiley looked around before darting down the hallway in a blur of motion. She listened outside the door for precious minutes to make sure that he or anyone else wasn't in the room. There were no sounds, the room was completely silent.

The door pushed open easily, making a few creaking noises on the hinges. She cringed at the noise, which seemed much louder in the silence, and slipped inside.

The room was larger than she would have expected, and the furniture was plusher than she would have thought. The bed was covered with silk linens, the pillows were huge and filled with goose down, the chairs that were scattered across the room were padded, unlike most of the chairs that priests sat in. There was also a large oak desk on the far wall. That was where anything incriminating was likely to be stored. Well, either in that desk or underneath his incredibly huge pillows.

Knowing that most people tended to hide things in a false bottom drawer, or in a locked one, Wiley moved over to the desk and started pulling open drawers. The drawers that came free easily Wiley didn't spend much time in. No one in their right mind would be okay with leaving their important and incriminating documents in a drawer that would easily be opened. When she got to the bottom drawer, the drawer stuck fast.

"Jackpot," Wiley whispered as she yanked open the drawer with one swift yank. The noise the drawer made in protest was loud, but at this point, Wiley would take her chances. It was time to prove this priest wasn't so priestly after all. Criminals liked to keep records of past deeds, sometimes they wrote them down, other times they saved clippings from a paper or something and held onto the memories on the paper for as long as they could.

The drawer was filled with paper. Wiley pulled them out and looked through. They were reports of being sexually assaulted by the priest, others were the priest swindled money away in order to use it for the "church" and even more on hiring people to kill others. Wiley had known that this man was a scum bag, but now she knew the extent of it.

"Well, well, well," Wiley froze and turned to the voice, "if it isn't the missing companion. I have to admit, I didn't believe for a moment that you were actually dead. I told those boys that if they were able to kill you, that they should come and get me at once. Since they never showed I didn't think that they were dead. What I would like to know, is how in the world did you get in here?" The priest was wearing his robe, however the hood was down, displaying him in his full glory.

His hair was covered in a sheen of grease, and she could smell his breath from where she was standing. His clothes were perfect, they were clean and she could could see the perfect creases in the robe. She had a sneaking suspicion that the robe wasn't his and he took it from someone else. It wouldn't have surprised her.

"Frankly, I don't want to tell you," Wiley answered. Suddenly it hit her. If he was here, that meant that he had Lynelle. "Where is Lynelle?" Wiley threw the papers onto the desk and put her full attention on him. He snickered then, just egging her on. "Answer me, where is Lynelle?"

"Somewhere safe," he answered. "Somewhere where you or your friends can't get to her. Don't worry, I'll take good care of her." Wiley hissed at him.

"You will not touch her! I know what you are. You're a slime bag who likes to get his jollies off by raping women and using this esteemed church to cover it up. You use donations that people make to pay off hitmen to kill people who come close to finding you out. I've seen your kind before," Wiley growled at him as she took a menacing step forward. "Once they're found out, the never last for long."

"It doesn't matter because you're not going to make it out of here alive. Trust me." He stepped out of the room and shut the door. Wiley heard his feet pounding the hard floor outside the room. He must have thought that she was slow, or that her being a woman was something that made her weak.

"It doesn't even matter, I'll have reinforcements here soon enough," Wiley muttered. _Jenos,_ Wiley said in her head after she had grabbed onto the bond between her and her dragon. _Lynelle has been kidnapped by the priest. He must have figured out that the Train she was with was an illusion. Get you and Train back here as soon as possible. Don't be in dragon form, that'll scare people._ Wiley let the bond slip through her mental fingers before she kicked down the door and ran through the corridors after him. She used her nose to follow his scent. He was heading toward there Lynelle had entered the building.

His scent brought her to the front of the church. For a disgusting maggot he sure could run. Wiley opened the doors and stepped through.

"NOW!" Wiley's eyes widened.

Jenos's head snapped up. He'd gotten Wiley's message.

"Train, the priest has Lynelle," Jenos commented. Train looked at Jenos, his golden eyes were hard, but there was a worried look deep in them. "Listen to me, we can't just go storming in there in our dragon forms. In the end we'll have to kill innocent people to get out of there. I know that getting Lynelle back is everything to you, but we have to be smart about it, especially because Wiley is there as well." Train nodded his large dragon head.

"Jenos, we have to get there soon, if they die, we die. We'll have to get as close as we can before we-" Jenos suddenly howled in pain. "What's happening?"

"Wiley," Jenos whispered. "There is no innocent person in this," Jenos groaned. "Let's go Train," Jenos said. Jenos took a few steps before leaping into the air. Train followed him.

The air was warm beneath their wings as they flew through the air. It smelled fresh, something that they hadn't smelled in a long time, and the ground underneath them was falling away by the mile. There was no time for them to make sure that no one could see them. Their riders were in danger, which was worse than their own lives.

"If we keep flying at this speed, we're never going to be able to stop, Jenos!" Train yelled above the wind in their ears. "We're going to crash into something and kill ourselves!"

"No," Jenos said. "We'll slow down when we get closer, we need to make up all the time that we can. I have a feeling that Lynelle is drugged or unconscious."

"Why wouldn't I know that?" Train asked.

"Compared to bonds of the dragon riders who came before us, we're still new at this. We've only known each other for a few days. We have to go back." Jenos looked at Train. He saw Train thinking about what he said.

"Let's s go then," Train said. Jenos nodded. After a few seconds, both dragon's took to the sky, ignoring the fact that they were visible for miles around.

Lynelle groaned as she opened her eyes. The last thing she remembered was taking a drink from the wine goblet that was offered. After that, she couldn't remember anything. There was a large, throbbing pain right between her eyes.

"Damn it," Lynelle muttered. "I must have been drugged." Lynelle looked around. She was in a stone room. The only light that there was, was coming from an old oil lantern. She room smelled of smoke and mildew. Lynelle reached for her magic, she could feel it sitting at the center of her being, but she couldn't reach it. At first panic laced through her mind, but she slowly realized it was probably because of the drugs in her system. She remembered that there were several drugs that inhibited the use of magic, they were normally used during a surgery when the magic would lash out and try to protect the unconscious body of the person in need of surgery.

"You're awake." Lynelle looked up and saw a face poking through the door at her. It was the priest that had taken an interest in her. "Where are your two male friends? Your female friend is currently...indisposed." The tone in which he spoke about Wiley made the hair on the back of Lynelle's neck stand on end.

"What did you do to Wiley?" Lynelle asked. He just smiled at her. "If Wiley is hurt, when I get out of here, I'm going to kill you."

"Tell me what that woman made you do. She obviously isn't human. No doubt that she beguiled you into being her friend, and then she used her demon abilities to make you do what she wanted. She's trying to take down the church, isn't she? She wants to let loose hell spawn on this town and start taking over the world." Lynelle stared at him through the small window in the door. She would have loved to strangle him, or make the door explode so that the splinters impaled him. Both options were out of the question at the moment. "I am trying to save your immortal soul, let me help you."

"Go to Hell," Lynelle growled.

"I see, this woman no doubt has corrupted you more than we realized. I will save you." The small window in the door closed, leaving Lynelle in the small room alone once more.

"Damn it! I need to get out of here," Lynelle muttered. She was free to move around the cell, but there wasn't much she could do considering she was just human. If she were an elf she would have been able to at least break the door down with the superior strength, if she were Wiley she could rot the door down, and if she were Train, she would just burn the door down. She was trapped, there was nothing that she could do until someone came and got her, or the drugs wore off so she could use her magic. There was nothing to do but wait.

Wiley was shaking. Pain was racing from her wound into all parts of her body. She knew that she had other wounds, but they were miniscule compared to the one that she was feeling. The moments leading up to when she had been injured kept running though her mind over and over again. The only other thought in her head beside the moments before being injured were that she couldn't believe how stupid she had been. She should have seen something like that coming.

A new noise drew her out of her thoughts and into the painful reality with which she was now faced. It was a plop, like water dripping into a pool. Wiley scanned the room, but saw no source of the noise. It wasn't until she looked down that she realized what it was. A wound on her shoulder was bleeding at a good pace.

"Wonderful," Wiley muttered. Her body had decided to focus on healing the life threatening injury, leaving her shoulder would to bleed. It was clotting, but not nearly as fast as she would have liked. Time was going to be of the essence, but there was nothing that she could do. Her magic was cut off from her because of her injuries, it was doing its best to heal her to prevent her from dying.

"I have discovered that you have your claws into that girl more than we suspected." Wiley looked up and saw the priest standing in the door way. He was holding a pitchfork in one hand with its butt on the ground. He didn't look happy.

"Oh?" Wiley asked. "Do tell, do tell," Wiley said. The priest ignored her taunt and walked into the room. There was no need to shut the door because Wiley couldn't escape. Her legs were useless at the current time, and she was hanging from the ceiling on old, rusty chains.

"Tell me what you did to her, so that I might save her from your corruption. If you do not, I'm afraid that the information will have to be tortured out of you. You should also give up your other friends. The entire town is on the lookout for them, there is no way that they're going to make it here to save you." Wiley laughed then. It was a loud amused laugh that quickly turned into a barking cough.

"You don't know my friends," Wiley said. A coppery taste filled her mouth. Once her mouth was full, Wiley spat the blood onto the priest, covering his face and part of his torso in her blood. Rage covered his face and filled his eyes. A few seconds later a new pain laced into the old and Wiley's head fell back as she let out a silent cry of pain. "You'll never catch them. They'll kill you, if I don't. You sorry son of a bitch," Wiley laughed. "You are awfully pathetic. You get others to do your dirty work, and you can probably only get it up with prostitutes who you restrain and beat. Your kind is the scum of the world. I hate your kind." Wiley laughed again.

"You bitch!" The pitch fork impaled her once more, across her already torn open stomach. She felt her guts ready to fall out, but she stopped them. Her magic created an invisible wall to keep her guts where they were supposed to be. "I will bleed you out, I will stab you with this over and over again until you stop moving. You will never leave this room. I will make sure of that."

"You may do what you want to this body, but you can rest assured that I will meet you in the land of the dead. I will stop you from reaching Hell to provide you with an even worse punishment than Satan himself can give you. You bloody priest, you will know pain when I through with you. For you," Wiley started, "I will gladly inherit all that my parents left behind when they came to this world. See you in the afterlife." Wiley laughed. The priest covered his ears at her laugh. It grated on his soul like she was moving a cheese grater against his skin.

Jenos could feel Wiley's life slipping away. She was growing weaker by the second. If he didn't get to her soon, she would die, and so would he. Panic and worry were pumping adrenaline through his veins like it was the only thing in them. He needed to get to her, he needed to save her.

"Jenos, I can feel Lynelle now," Train called over the rush of the wind. "She's pissed, and she's about to do something incredibly stupid."

"Well, Train," Jenos started. "So am I."

Disclaimer: I don't own Black Cat. Lynelle is © to BlackCatTrain. Wiley is © to me.


End file.
